


Will You Follow Me?

by whiteroseofthemoon



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:07:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 23,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28648059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteroseofthemoon/pseuds/whiteroseofthemoon
Summary: A set of one-shots based on life of Jeff Winger/Annie Edison. No particular order. Mostly Post-Season 6, but canon-compliant universe in any case.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger
Comments: 14
Kudos: 46





	1. The End

**Author's Note:**

> Jeff’s reflection on events of 5x13 Basic Sandwich/6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television.  
> I really love writing from Jeff’s point of view because he is so hard to read, most of the things he doesn’t say is much more important than when he talks and it’s fun to try to get into his head.

Jeff came home after this endless day of a mess. He poured himself a drink, his usual scotch with extra ice and fell on the couch. It was late night and he didn’t even bother to turn on the light.

He was in love with Annie. Not that it came to him much of a surprise, all those times he felt that unexplainable pull towards her, all the times she made him do stuff with just one of her damn Disney looks, how happy she made him feel when they were in the middle of one of their games or banters, all of that including how hot he thought she was could be interpreted into this feeling he was avoiding his whole life. 

For so long he was convincing himself that this feeling, this pull towards her will pass, that his affection towards Annie was nothing more than deeply knotted friendship. After all, she was so easy to be with, so easy to love…

But after what happened today, Jeff, as good as he was in this, couldn’t keep lying to himself. A fucking machine recognized his feelings, this blast of human passion literally opened the door. Jezz, if Annie only new she would just die with delight of him being such a pathetic cliché. Annie loved love and romance, she genuinely cared for people, he knew she deeply cared for him, maybe she was in love with him too…

No, he won’t go there. Even if Annie did love him, he can’t do this. He can’t ruin her life like this. What would them being together even look like now? Awhile back, when the thing with Britta fell apart completely, Jeff thought about it a lot, but every time he was close to really do something about it, he just couldn’t. Annie was so out of his league. She wasn’t Britta who was just as messed up as he was or any other of countless of women that came and went away from his life. She had this light in her that Jeff admired so much, she was strong and driven and so much younger. How can he, a forty-year old man, a failure of a person with deep-rotted depression, can just do that to her? No, from now on, he will watch from her a distance, he will admire her success that he was sure will follow soon enough and he will let her go, from his hands and his head and his heart, even if he has to rip it out. He’d rather see her to be happy somewhere far away, than miserable with him. That’s why they say true love is never selfish, he thought pouring another drink. This why being in love was a fucking disaster for someone like Jeff.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

He broke his promise to himself, he couldn’t hold it in no matter how much he tried or how much he drank. When Annie said she was going away, he knew that she won’t come back, she was way too good for this place, Greendale was a headquarters for people like Chang or himself, not like her. And to add to that Abed was leaving too, so Jeff couldn’t hold it. 

When she found him in their study room, the words poured out of him and if he had more time, he was sure he was going to tell her everything. How much she truly meant to him, how he loved her, how all he wanted now for real is to have a family with her. 

And now Annie was drifting off to sleep at his place and he couldn’t believe his luck. After tears and confessions, after promises they made to each other, after she told him that she loved him too, she convinced him that it was not fair he made the decision for both of them. So, he made this leap of faith and prayed to whoever was listening that their connection is strong enough to march through life together.


	2. Pools and Tables

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set during 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television. Jeff storms off and Annie follows him? What does the rest of the group do while these two sort things out?

‘I will go to talk to him,’ says Annie after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence. 

‘How do you know where he is?’ asks Britta raising her eyebrows. 

‘Knowing Jeff, he is probably in the study room. You guys finish your drinks,’ Annie takes her phone and a set of keys. 

‘We’ll be right behind you,’ promises Abed, Annie nods and hurriedly leaves the bar. 

‘That was weird, right?’ asks Chang.

‘Not, really. Jeff freaks out, Annie is there to keep him together. Nothing new,’ shrugs Britta collecting the money for drinks. 

‘All right, I know, this is probably none of my business, but what is going with those two?’ asks Frankie.

The rest of the group mumbles something incoherently. 

‘How much time exactly do you have?’ asks dean chuckling. 

‘Were they involved?’ frowns Frankie clearly uncomfortable at the thought. 

‘No, but kind of yes,’ says Abed and everybody nods in agreement. 

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘They were banging in secret!’ yells Chang happily.

‘No, they weren’t, stop being gross!’ Britta smacks his back to which he hisses at her, Britta rolls her eyes and looks at Frankie. ‘Honestly, Frankie, nobody knows for sure what they are. Annie had an on and off crush on Jeff during our first couple years, then it shifted into something else but never really progressed. They have always been very close, practically from day one, but kept it chaste, mostly. As for Jeff, it’s really hard to say. He, obviously, cares for Annie very deeply and every once in awhile lets his guard down, he definitely looked at her as a romantic prospect, but again never acted on it, for whatever reason.’

‘I think, in Jeff’s case, he simply doesn’t know how to do it,’ shrugs Abed. ‘Think about it, for a large portion of his life Jeff was this cool, laid-back guy who always preferred casual sex over real relationship, no offence Britta,’ she just glanced at him.   
‘But then there was Annie, and when we first met, she was very young and he wasn’t comfortable with that. He leaned on this thought for a long time, because it was in his safe zone. So, they just remained friends, sort of.’

‘Debate thing was certainly telling,’ dean interfered. Abed, Britta and Chang nodded in agreement. While Frankie was focused on Abed. 

‘But now, he can’t ignore the fact that Annie grew up and it happened awhile ago, he just didn’t want to see it and he doesn’t have the excuses he had anymore. He definitely didn’t plan any of this, just like all of us, he came to Greendale because things out there weren’t that great for him, but then Annie slowly crept up on him, destroying his belief system of many years on love and relationships in general. How many times did Annie make Jeff do stuff nobody else could?’

‘A crap ton of times,’ smirked Britta. 

‘So, to answer your question, Frankie, nobody knows what is going between them, but everybody knows that something does. And they know…’

‘And I know!’ says Chang happily, dean rolls his eyes and frowns at him. Abed continues as if nobody interrupted him.

‘It’s something completely unplanned, deep and very real. But like everything in the best TV shows, we might never really know. However, maybe if we hurry up, we might see something that never happened before.’

‘All right,’ says slightly stunned Frankie, she certainly didn’t expect such a deep analysis. ‘Let’s go and see.’


	3. 3.The Missing Footage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set after 6x12 Wedding Videography

Garrett’s wedding was over, thankfully it went pretty well for somebody who married his cousin. Jeff smirked to himself bitterly, cousin or not but Garrett did get married and the girl was pretty cute. Great, now he was worse than Garrett. Not that Jeff ever wanted to get married, marriage was an illusion, something that people tell themselves is real but it never really works.   
Spending a lifetime with someone, it’s way too long, that what he once told his study group when Shirley was getting remarried. And then he asked Annie to help with the toast. Annie…If Jeff ever would consider marrying anybody for real, that would be her, but it was impossible. Annie was off-limits. She didn’t need to marry some pathetic community college professor. No, when she leaves this place, she is going to marry a senator or something and he will be all supportive of her and she will become a president and forget all about Jeff Winger who she once knew. 

He will be fine, he got used to it. To have what he wanted just one step away. Just like his dream coming back to law, Annie was so close, but so far away. He wants so badly to tell her everything, to give them a chance but he can’t ruin her life, not her, never her. 

Abed was coming over, he wanted Jeff’s help with editing a wedding video, not that Jeff knew anything about it. He had a strong suspicion it was Abed’s way to look after Jeff and he was grateful.

When Abed came to Jeff’s apartment they ate a little pizza and watch a couple of episodes of Inspector Spacetime to Abed’s delight. Then Abed showed some of the footage from the wedding, wow people did hate them. Meh, who cares. There were plenty of footage of their group as well, Frankie and Annie talking about dragons, what was that about? Dean and Chang crazy as always, Britta dancing with one of Garrett’s other cousins and then him Jeff Winger talking to other guests. All seemed normal to Jeff, but Abed wanted perfection, as always, when it came to filmmaking. Somebody called Abed and he went to talk to the corridor leaving Jeff with the computer on. 

Jeff looked at the screen, clearly unimpressed, until he noticed a file that caught his eye: “Annie's Missing Lover Footage”. What the hell?

He couldn’t help himself and clicked on play.

It was Annie, obviously, sitting in front of her vanity mirror. She was in her bathrobe and without any make up on and she was so beautiful. She noticed the camera and turned at it felt like she was talking to Jeff, his heart almost exploded.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Stop.’  
‘Hey, stop. If you don't put that silly thing away, I swear, I'm gonna stop loving you,’ she was now on the bed.

‘Oh, that's it.’

‘Happy birthday.’

Jeff was so mesmerized by the video that he didn’t hear Abed coming back, when he noticed he quickly pushed on Stop right when Britta’s face was in the camera saying: ‘What are you doing?’

He felt like he was caught doing something very private. There was no denying he saw that, so he decided to go with offense.

‘What the hell is that?’

‘You shouldn’t worry, Jeff. That’s just Annie's "missing lover" footage. You know in movies where the hero's wife or girlfriend is dead or missing and so he sits in the dark and he watches her in a home movie. Or hologram, and she's always beautiful and full of love almost to the point of being stupid. We made this footage in case Annie gets kidnapped or murdered.’

‘Right,’ Jeff almost rolled his eyes. ‘Because that is such a normal thing to do.’

‘We do stuff like this all the time, first with it was just me, then me and Troy, then Troy, me and Annie, now it’s me and Annie. You can keep it if you want.’

‘Why would I want to keep it?’ asked Jeff his heart going cold. Abed always knows much more than he leads on, what if he knew Jeff’s secret. What if he tells Annie?

‘I just figured it might cheer you up. You did have the same strange face watching that footage, just like when Garrett proposed.’

‘Thanks Abed, but this won’t make things better,’ said Jeff bitterly. If anything, it will make things worse, he thought to himself. If he keeps this footage, he will watch again and maybe again, and he already had hard time coping. 

‘You know, in the movies like that, the hero, when his lover is gone always regrets about something, about not being there, or being nice enough. Sometimes the hero’s regret is about not telling the truth at a crucial moment of their lives.’

‘And what does it have to do anything with me or Annie?’ asks Jeff carefully.

‘Nothing, thought you might find it interesting,’ shrugs Abed and went on editing the wedding.


	4. Cities and Airports

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set a few weeks after 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television. Jeff visits Annie in DC, airport reunion. Established relationship.

Jeff’s heart was pounding a little, until today he never even was on plane, which was already slightly embarrassing for a forty-year old man. He exited the Gate and looked around trying to spot a familiar face. The airport in DC was enormous, this amount of people and noise was giving Jeff a slight anxiety, especially, considering that it’s been five minutes and Annie was nowhere to be seen. And for highly organized Annie Edison, that was unprecedently long time. That part of Jeff that was responsible for his self-sabotaged fear was building up, what if Annie changed her mind about them? Yes, she promised to meet him, but what if she realized it was all big mistake and now, she was too embarrassed to tell him that? What is she decided to break up with him? 

Stop that, said another part of him, the hopeful one, the one who pushed him to have a conversation with her in a Study Room. It’s Annie, she wouldn’t do something like that and she loved you and slept with you and promised to be with you. She might be stuck in traffic or called in for work or something, she was, after all, doing an internship at FBI, not Pizza Hut. 

While two sides of Jeff, hopeful and panicking one, were battling each other, somebody came from the back and closed his eyes with small, warm palms. His heart jumped up and his face, despite his inner conversation, split into a huge grin. He would have recognized those hands everywhere, her turned around and saw her. She was beaming at him happily, clearly excited she startled him. 

‘Hey!,’ before he could say anything else, Annie was already in his arms hugging him tightly, putting her ear to his heart. He kissed the top of her head smelling her usual floral shampoo and sweet perfume, his body, tensed from travel and mild panic, relaxed. 

‘Hey,’ Annie broke the hug and Jeff couldn’t help himself and gave her a long, deep kiss. He wanted to avoid the PDA, because well, he was Jeff Winger and he didn’t do that sort of thing. But it was Annie and he hasn’t touched her for weeks, so maybe he could do an exception once in awhile. When it came to Annie, Jeff learned a long time ago, that exceptions were kind of a rule for them.

‘You are late,’ he teased her a little breaking the kiss. Annie smacked him on the chest.

‘I am not! And I resent the statement! When I was ever late for anything? I saw you immediately, it’s not like that you are very hard to spot, just wanted to make a surprise.’

‘Well, considering that we agreed you meet me, how much of a surprise it can really be?’ he took her hand they went for the exit from the airport.

‘Jeff, you can be such a buzzkill sometimes! Here I am trying to be romantic and you ruin it! Maybe I had a little fantasy about, you know, a little lovey-dovey reunion in the airport!’

‘Of course, you did,’ Jeff rolled his eyes affectionately. This was so Annie, she smacked his shoulder. ‘I think it was pretty cute, don’t worry.’ 

‘Ah nahh! Nope, that won’t work on me. You owe me a romantic evening now, mister,’ seeing Jeff wiggling his eyebrows, Annie tried to suppress a smile, but failed. ‘And I don’t mean sex, you big weirdo. I mean, we still going to have sex, trust me. But I want you to woo me a little.’

‘As you wish, Milady.’


	5. The Past in The Present

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set a few weeks after 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television. Annie and Jeff are in a relationship and Jeff is visiting Annie at DC for a long weekend. They meet someone from Annie’s past. OMC (sort of, his name is mentioned in Annie’s journal, but we never saw him on screen)

Annie and Jeff were passing through the streets of Washington. It was Jeff’s first visit and Annie was on a mission to show him as much of the cultural sights as possible. Of course, Jeff would have preferred them staying in bed naked all day, but Annie was having none of it. So now, after seeing of dozens, of what Annie called, “Highly Important Tourist’s Spots” they were eating ice-cream in the park. Jeff was glad he was in a good shape and went to the gym on regular basis, because if not, he would be dead by now. Annie’s source for unstoppable energy has always been a mystery to Jeff. Not that he minded, in fact, it was one of many things that he loved about Annie, her ability to motivate him without pushing, just by being, well, herself. They finished the ice-cream and decided to take a walk through the park, after that, Annie promised they will return to her apartment which Jeff was the most excited about, after all, he fantasized about this particular part of the trip, ever since Annie left for DC. 

When they were passing buy the fountains, Jeff heard somebody calling Annie’s name. It was a tall (but not as tall as Jeff was) man in his twenties with wild black hair, he was looking at Annie with wide eyes and Jeff didn’t like his face expression one bit. 

‘Annie?’ the man said again. Annie’s attention finally shifted from Jeff and when she noticed the guy her cheeks blushed a little. 

‘Dylan!’ she clearly recognized the guy and Jeff felt an unpleasant pinch of jealousy. He decided to keep it to himself, Dylan could be just a friend, after all. ‘Oh my God! It’s so good to see you. How have you been?’ 

Annie let go of Jeff’s hand and gave Dylan a hug, judging by how Dylan reciprocated, he was definitely more than a friend and Jeff felt another punch of jealousy, stronger this time round. He hoped it was some ex that Annie never mentioned, he really hoped it wasn’t an FBI agent who was following Annie around while Jeff was stuck in Greendale. Annie quickly broke a hug, her cheeks were now burning.

‘I am good, Annie. Wow, it’s been so long,’ he stared at Annie longingly and Jeff recognized this look, he used to have the same one before Annie and him finally sorted things out. ‘How are you?’

‘I am good, very good. I am doing an internship here in DC,’ she said shyly. ‘But how are you here? I thought you were planning to move to Ohio!’

‘I was and I still live there, I just came to DC to visit my dad,’ Dylan responded. Jeff still didn’t say anything but was getting a little uncomfortable since Annie still hasn’t introduced him yet. 

‘Oh right, I forgot he lived here,’ Dylan was now staring at Jeff clearly not happy to see him, Annie noticed his look and gasped a little. ‘Oh, sorry! This is Jeff, my boyfriend. Jeff, this is Dylan, he and I used to date a couple of years ago.’

So, this was her ex, well, it’s not like Jeff would have expected Annie to sit around all on her own while he was too much of a coward to do something about, well, them. And it’s not like he never saw anyone while Annie and him were just friends. But Jeff knew one thing, that Annie wasn’t kind of girl who would go for a casual thing and seeing how this Dylan guy was looking at her, Jeff was sure there were more to this story. He wasn’t going to push her or anything, her past is her past, but he couldn’t help himself to be jealous. 

‘Jeff? As in “Jeff and I were just friends and there was nothing ever going on between us except that one kiss?”,’ ouch, so Annie mentioned him to Dylan, as awkward as this situation was, Jeff felt a slight pinch of self-satisfaction. ‘I thought you looked familiar.’

‘Yeah, well…’ said Annie and her cheeks were now of crimson color. Jeff decided to come to an aid.

‘Jeff Winger, nice to meet you,’ he held out a hand for a shake but Dylan looked at him with slight irritation and ignored him. Jeff took his hand back and looked at Annie who purposefully ignored his eyes.

‘You know, I should really go,’ he said looking at Annie with bitterness. ‘It was nice seeing you, Annie. Hope it will all work out for you.’

‘It was good to see you too!’ Annie waved weakly at him and this Dylan guy walked away quickly glancing at Jeff with obvious envy.

‘That was awkward,’ said Jeff when Dylan was too far away to hear them. ‘Your ex, I assume?’

‘Yeah…’

‘It looks like he still holds a grudge.’

‘Jeff,’ Annie now looked positively sad. ‘Let’s get somewhere where we can talk.’

‘You don’t need to explain anything, we weren’t dating back then and it’s not like I was never seeing anyone.’

‘I know, but I don’t want this to be between us.’

‘All right.’

They went to the nearest coffee shop and took a table in the corner. Annie was still upset and Jeff was getting worried. What happened between those two? Obviously, this guy was not over Annie, which Jeff can totally understand, but what if Annie was not over him too? A wonderful day they spent together was now turning darker. 

‘Dylan and I dated for six months after we graduated Greendale,’ Annie took a sip of coffee. ‘He was a nurse at the hospital I worked in and well, he liked me a lot and asked me out one day. I agreed and then, I don’t know, we just kept dating.’

‘It’s perfectly natural, these things happen,’ said Jeff carefully. He was really trying to be understanding. Really trying, God, it was hard to be a decent boyfriend. 

‘Yeah, but the thing is Dylan was clearly seeing things way more serious than I was and he got into this much, much faster, I couldn’t keep up with him. Anyway, on our six months anniversary, Dylan proposed to me.’

‘What?’ Jeff almost yelled. People around them turned their heads to the noise. ‘Sorry, it’s just…well, I figured you were serious, but that’s another level.’

‘Yeah,’ smiled Annie looking at her fingers. ‘When he did it, I couldn’t believe myself. I just turned twenty-three and I had no desire to get married and we never even discussed it! And when he proposed I just freaked out. Anyway, I told him that I can’t marry him, because, well, I wasn’t ready. He couldn’t deal with it, so we broke up.’

‘I am sorry,’ and he was, because despite his own feelings, his first thought about how Annie handled a break up of what was evidently a very serious relationship. 

‘Don’t be. It was for the best,’ Annie looked at him and smiled. ‘I didn’t love him, not the way I should have to get married. I am sure you noticed he knew who you were.’

‘I was not going to bring that up, but since you are the one who mentioned it,’ he couldn’t help but grin. 

‘Yeah, even though you and I had a falling out back then, I guess I mentioned you more than I realized and of course, I showed him tons of pictures with us, all of us together. I guess, he got jealous of you, even though, well we weren’t a thing back then.’

Jeff pouted a little. She was right, of course, they were not officially a couple and they didn’t keep in touch, which was entirely his fault due to the fact he was trying to prove how awesome of a lawyer he can be on his own, far away from Greendale. This fall out will be one of his biggest regrets for the rest of his life. But he needed to make sure that Annie understood that even though they were not together, per say, he never stopped thinking about her.

‘You are right, we weren’t a real couple back then. But we were a thing four years before that, Annie. I know we talked about it already, but…’ he took her hand. ‘Even though you and I got together just now, we were always something, you know that better than anyone. And I get it, of course somewhere along the line you would have found someone who would be lucky to be with you. I am not going to lie, I am happy that in the end you chose me, despite how crappy I was sometimes…’

‘Jeeeff,’ she clearly tried to contradict him, but he just smiled at her. He knew she understood him better than anyone, but he wanted her to know how important she was to him. 

‘It’s true. And it’s something that I need to deal with and never repeat the same mistakes with us. Because, well, I love you and I don’t want to lose you.’

‘I love you too!’

‘I know,’ he grinned a little noticing Annie’s smirk, she knew that he just Han-Soloed her. Damn it, Abed, even now you are still in our heads with all your TV crap! ‘My point is, I never expected for you to be single for the rest of your life, just because I was hoping for something and I know I was confusing and weird about the whole thing, but I never wanted you to be unhappy.’

‘I know that,’ Annie put her hand over his. ‘And I swear, I was going to tell you about Dylan and I promise, it wasn’t your fault or anything, it just…I guess, we both had it really bad, worse than even I wanted to admit it.’

‘Yeah,’ nodded Jeff. He knew exactly what she was talking about.

‘It’s just we literally just got together and now you came to visit me and I really didn’t want to have the talk about exes during our weekend. And it’s not like it matters anyway.’

‘It doesn’t,’ he said sincerely, but now that the subject was on the table, he was curious. ‘But how many ex-almost-fiancés we are talking about here? You know, just for the record?’

Annie gave him a look, but he noticed that she wasn’t mad at him. 

‘Just one, Jeff, I wasn’t going around seducing man into marrying me.’

‘Oh, I know that, you just have a natural pull that makes men want to make an honest woman out of you.’

‘Jeff!’ she smacked his shoulder. They already talked about getting married somewhere down the road, so Jeff was fairly certain that when he proposes she will most likely to say yes, he hoped. 

‘I just need to know one thing, if I were to propose to you…’

‘You know I will say “yes”,’ Annie rolled her eyes and Jeff beamed happily at her feeling a wave of relief. ‘It’s different with you and me, it always has been and stop pretending you don’t know that, just to feed you ego!’

‘I am not!’

‘You so are!’

‘You can be really insufferable sometimes, you know that? Maybe I was trying to propose here!’

‘Jeff, we talked about it! No proposals until I finish with my internship!’

‘And also, you can be very bossy!’

‘Jeeeeff…,’ she couldn’t finish her protest, so Jeff just leaned and kissed her to seal the end of their little quarrel. She tried to protest but quickly changed her mind and melted into the kiss.

‘Can I ask you something?’ asked Annie after their, a little too steamy for a public place, make out.

‘Of course,’ Jeff took a deep breath, they really need to get back to her place. It was getting frustrating. 

‘Did you date anybody? I mean for real, not your usual-kind of dating,’ his first instinct was to laugh it off and tease Annie, but she was very honest with him and he, kind of felt it wasn’t the time for one of his moments of deflecting serious matters. He was getting better at this, but sometimes it was still too hard for him, but for Annie’s sake he can take it. 

‘No, not really. The last actual relationship I had was with Slater, after that it was whole mess friends-with-benefits with Britta, for which you punched me in the nose…’

‘You are never letting go of it, are you?’ Annie rolled her eyes and Jeff couldn’t help himself but laugh a little. For such a tiny person, Annie was sure fierce as hell, it has always been a major turn on for him.

‘…and, as you put it, my usual kind of dating. Casual, nothing serious. Now, who is having an ego boost here?’

‘It’s not like that!’ said Annie trying to hide her self-satisfied grin. 

‘I don’t mind,’ the waiter came with the receipt, Jeff left some cash for the coffee and they stood up leaving their corner table. ‘You have always been special to me.’

‘Jezz, now who is sentimental here?’

‘You infected me with that, so don’t complain!’ he leaned to her closer and whispered. ‘Let’s go to your place and I show exactly how much I missed you.’

‘Yeah, I think it’s time,’ Annie whispered back seductively. Jeff took Annie’s hand and they marched away from the coffee shop as if they were in rush to the most important meeting in the world.


	6. To Curtains and Cushions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set after 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television. Annie and Jeff moved in together in DC and now having their first fight.

‘Annie,’ said Jeff solemnly.

‘Jeffrey,’ Annie responded in the same manner.

‘Wow, I think this is the first time ever you called me “Jeffrey”. You are going strong on this one, aren’t you?’

‘I am not talking to you until you change your mind.’

‘Annie, you are talking to me,’ pointed out Jeff trying to suppress a smirk. 

Annie just glared at him with the same look she had when Jeff decided to join Greendale president run. If Jeff was honest, it kind of turned him on. But they were in the middle of their first official fight as a couple and he wasn’t going to give up.

Jeff and Annie finally found a place and moved in together. Everything went relatively smoothly with the move, but Jeff knew, sooner or later something will stumble on them. And this something, was curtains. No matter how many times he tried to explain it Annie that he didn’t care about stupid curtains she wouldn’t give up the idea dragging him into decorating. It wasn’t his thing! But Annie, being Annie, was having none of it. She constantly sent him links to the online stores, but when he ignored her sixteenth link she blew up. She told him he was being insensitive and that she was just tying to make THEIR place look nice, to which he snapped and accused her of turning him into Ken in her Barbie doll house. One thing led to another and Jeff spent the night on the couch. It was such a stupid fight, he felt guilty for snapping at Annie, but felt like she was still being unreasonable. Why would she care about curtains so much? She can literally choose any color or shape and he will be fine with that. 

‘And I am not changing my mind, it’s just curtains and you turned it into Shakespearean tragedy!’ 

‘It’s not the curtains, Jeff! It’s a principle!’ Annie couldn’t help herself, of course she wouldn’t just give it up.

‘Do you remember the last time you said something like that? And made all of us lose it over a pen?’

‘I was not wrong! Somebody WAS stealing my pens!’

‘Annie, this someone was a monkey which lived in the vents!!!’

‘That’s not the point! The point was my pens were missing and there was a responsible party for that!’

‘Are we actually arguing about pens and a damn monkey who is probably dead by now?’

‘No, we are fighting over your complete lack of interest into decorating our home!’

‘I told you yesterday. I DON’T CARE! You can buy black curtains, yellow curtains or no curtains at all!’

‘That’s the point, you don’t care! And I wonder what else…’ Annie stopped abruptly herself not finishing the sentence. 

‘What else what, Annie?’

‘Nothing, it’s not fair.’

‘No, please finish the sentence.’

‘Like I said, it’s not fair.’

‘It’s not, because, apparently, me moving half across the country, quitting my job and changing my entire life for you was not proof enough of how I feel about you. This is what this about? You feeling insecure?’

‘Yes, Jeff! I am feeling insecure sometimes! You are not the only one who have fears and self-worth issues here!’

Jeff looked at her frustrated face and cooled off immediately. It was weird seeing Annie admitting something like that, she rarely showed fear about, well anything. 

‘Why didn’t you just say something?’

‘Because!’ Annie glanced at him and fell on the couch. He hesitated a little and joined her, this was a progress, he guessed. At least now they were getting somewhere, it’s not like Jeff had much experience with this sort of thing, but he wasn’t an idiot. ‘It’s awful of me even to think like that! Like you said, you changed your entire life to be with me, everything happened between us so fast and I am not complaining or anything, believe me, because I wanted this. It’s just sometimes I get terrified.’

‘Of what?’ he frowned thinking about what could possibly scare the force that Annie Edison was.

‘That what if we don’t work out? What if something goes wrong? What if you get bored with me and then change your mind and then if it all falls apart and you will resent me because I dragged you away from the life you knew? What if…what if I am not enough to make you happy?’

Jeff looked at her as if she lost her mind. Did Annie really think that? How can she doubt his desires after all this time? But then, an unpleasant thought crossed his mind. He did have the exact same fears over the time they knew each other and it took six years for him to overcome them, at least enough to take necessary steps. Jeff took Annie’s hand in his and she looked at him with her huge princess eyes and his initial anger over the fight melted away completely. Now all he wanted is to wrap her into a hug and stay like that forever.

‘Hey, listen, I get this. I understand this more than anyone. Sometimes, even now that I know for sure you love me, I feel this panic, that you will see all my flaws and it will be too much for you and you will leave me for somebody who actually deserves you.’

‘Jeff!’ she was clutching to his arm now and it was obvious she felt guilty. 

‘Listen to me, Annie. I love you more than anything in the world and I promise you I will never regret it and call me an optimist, but our…feelings,’ frowning a little, even now, he still felt so uncomfortable talking about this stuff. ‘survived six years of Greendale, my pathological denial of things like love and family and your control issues. I can’t promise you that we will work for sure, because nobody can’t ever guarantee that. But what I can promise you, that for my part, I want this to work and I will do anything in my power to make it work.’

‘I want that,’ she said quickly with tears in her eyes, she now looked so vulnerable and open that it made Jeff’s heart ache. ‘And I am so sorry for things I said and for making you sleep on the couch. It’s just, I wanted to make it perfect, to show you how much I love being with you. I wanted you to be there for every little thing and I guess I got so lost in my fears that I forgot that you actually don’t care about this kind of stuff. I built up in my head this idea that if you didn’t care for this, you might not care for me and, you know, for us. Which was, of course, really stupid and selfish of me. Because, you are right, you did everything and even more than I could hope for to be with me, in all things that really matters.’

‘I guess, we both need to work on this,’ he laughed a little. ‘Instead of constantly be terrified of losing each other, just be with each other.’

‘Yeah,’ she sniffled and then grinned. ‘I can’t believe that you were actually so mature about this. You are much better at this stuff then you give yourself credit for.’

‘Hey, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, I am sure I will screw up plenty of times in the future.’

Annie now was genuinely grinning, she leaned to kiss him and he met half-way. It felt so good to sort this out, it seemed like Annie reached the same conclusion because she stood up from the couch holding his hand, clearly leading him to their bedroom.

‘What about the curtains?’ he asked her when she was already on the top of him taking off her bra. He was not really thinking straight, because now his entire focus was on Annie’s bare breasts. 

‘I’ll buy the blue ones with those small leaves on the bottom, I liked them the most, if that’s OK with you.’

‘Yeah,’ he said breathing heavily as she was trailing kisses down his stomach and reaching the waistband of his briefs. ‘Totally OK, one hundred percent.’


	7. Old Enemies Die Hard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set 5 years after 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television. Annie and Jeff are happily married and settled in DC. Sebastian is now two and life was good, until they accidently run into Alan, the man who sold Jeff out in the first place. OFC.

A small family of three was strolling through supermarket. There was a young, beautiful woman with long dark hair and dancing blue eyes, a tall older man who could easily be a model or a movie star and a little blonde boy who was sitting in the shopping cart looking around curiously. He was at that age, where everything was a wonder to him. They stopped in the wine section where Annie Winger (nee Edison) was now choosing a gift for her boss’s birthday. Agent Winger was now officially an FBI agent, working as a second liaison between FBI and outside world under agent Alice Cooper, who hold the position of chief Communication Liaison for over ten years now. Agent Cooper was a smart and ruthless woman, but she was also very honest and was happy to help ambitious and talented agents. She and Annie worked perfectly well together, agent Cooper was throwing a birthday party at her home for the whole department, so naturally she invited Annie and her spouse, now a successful lawyer, at one of Washington’s consulting firms Jeffrey Winger, former teacher of Greendale. 

The couple was totally focused on the choice of wine, while Sebastian was now busy at consuming the cookie that Annie gave him in order to distract the boy from trying to pick up every single item from the shelf. She loved her boy, but God, sometimes he was way too active and curious. Jeff was now forty-six, and even though he was in a perfect shape and still was a little too obsessed with his health and abs, it was a little harder for him to keep up with the ever active toddler. But both, Jeff and Annie, loved their son to pieces, he was the ultimate proof of what a great team they are and always has been. 

The Wingers were lost in their little world, when a certain Alan Connor spotted them, Jeff hasn’t seen Alan since the time he beat the shit out of him after Connor was trying, once again, to mess with Jeff’s life. Seb mumbles something and Jeff’s attention shifts from the shelf to his son, he helps Seb with another cookie and noticed Alan’s eyes on his family. In instant, Jeff turned from a chill and happy family man to someone who would wish nothing more but to smack a bottle over the bold head of this piece of garbage.

Annie notices the shift in her husband’s mood and follows his gaze, she, of course, knows everything about Alan and the part he played in Jeff’s life. After all, she was the one who discovered that email, an ultimate proof of his betrayal. For a moment, Alan is lost for words, but a lifetime of practice of being a scumbag did the trick and he in instance had a shark smile on him. Jeff knew that Alan would be curious as to what Jeff was doing here and will try to find a way to bitter the life he had built, since well, Jeff did almost choke him once and went out of his way to save the college that Alan was targeting. 

‘Winger!’ he greated him as if they were old friends. ‘It’s been a long time!’ he looked at little Seb with his small, sly eyes and then his attention shifted to Annie who looked at him with an utmost contempt, she held Jeff’s hand in hers making sure he wouldn’t snap in a public place and, most importantly, in front of their son. If it wasn’t for Annie and Seb, Jeff would be really tempted to follow his urges, but the presence of his family would keep him from doing something he will regret later, he knew that. 

‘Alan,’ nodded Jeff clenching his teeth. 

‘What an unexpected surprise to see you here! And here I was thinking you will finish your days at that joke of a school.’

‘Last time, you said something like that, it didn’t end very well for you, I hope you don’t forget that,’ said Jeff in a low voice.

‘Yeah, yeah, water under the bridge, although I did have to go to emergency room, you were lucky I didn’t press charges.’

‘You were lucky my husband didn’t kill you, you malicious piece of human waste,’ Annie was now radiating rage, her usually warm blue eyes were cold as ice. 

‘Husband? Why, why, Winger, what happened to your reputation as a ladies man? I’ll tell you what, Mrs. Winger, as rude as you were to me, I can expose you to the stories involving your husband that will make your little head explode.’

‘Leave her out of this, Connor!’ snapped Jeff. Sebbie was now looking curiously at the unknown man who was talking to his parents. ‘Do what you came here to do and leave us alone.’

‘I was just making a small talk! It’s not my fault your wife being all hostile to me. You and I had some pretty sweet times together, haven’t we? I admit, the last time we saw each other it wasn’t the best, but we are grown man and wouldn’t let something like this come between us,’ he looked at Annie and smirked. ‘I remember you, weren’t you at Greendale as well? I know, for a fact, that you and your little friends broke into my office. You trained her well, Winger, I give you that, she is pretty and follow you like a puppy, I guess this why they tell you to get them young, don’t they?’

Jeff was now radiating rage and he was about to break his restrain and punch Alan in the guts and be damned all the security cameras. Before he could do anything, he felt Annie’s hand tugging him back, he glanced at her and was astonished that she was smiling, but not with the same smile she had for him or their son, it was the smile when she was sure of her victory and supremacy at something. 

‘You know, Alan,’ she emphasized the bold man’s name and he looked at her with a smirk clearly not knowing what is about to hit him. ‘You are that kind of man that is like a slug, after everything I found out about you when, as you say, me and my little friends broke into your office, which I can neither deny nor confirm,’ Jeff couldn’t help but smirk at her choice of words. ‘And after everything Jeff told me about you, I made a little research on you, just in case it might get in handy someday. You see I am a very organized person. I prepare for everything, Jeff likes to make fun of it sometimes, but I guess he learned to appreciate it. So as soon as I got the chance, seeing how you seem to enjoy coming out of your way to get to my husband, I found something interesting on you. Hey, I get it, you are jealous, Jeff is a hundred time of a man that you ever will be and it gets to you. But just to be safe, as you lawyers like to say, I dug some dirt on you, in case you will trouble us ever again.’ 

Alan’s piglike face shifted from condescension into anger, Jeff, on the other hand was enjoying it. God, his wife was amazing, but he always knew that. 

‘And I found that you have a lot of questions when it comes to tax evasion, not to mention that you had at least three cases that have a lot of questions from the police back in Colorado.’

‘That is just ridiculous,’ said Alan smiling, his eyes, however, were cautious and a little frightened. ‘Jeff, tell your little wife to go bake cookies for your son and stay away from big players.’  
‘Oh, no,’ smiled Jeff hugging Annie’s waist. ‘You brought it onto yourself, I am just an innocent man choosing a bottle of wine.’

‘So, you are hiding behind a little’s girl skirt now, Winger? Very mature of you.’

Jeff looked at him with what almost could be interpreted as pity, but in fact Jeff was loving it a bit too much. Usually, it was the other way around, him getting all protective over Annie, it was like that during their Greendale years when people wouldn’t take her serious, big mistake on their part, he knew that even then. And now, when she was an FBI agent and had to fight through idiocracy of bureaucracy and politics which Annie hated, Jeff was there to help her with it, since he understood it much better due to his time in the world full of Alans and well, being a lawyer helped as well. But there were occasions when tables would turn and Annie was the one who would be all protective and, well, prepared. He loved it.

‘This little girl, you are talking about, Mr. Connor,’ said Annie unfazed by his insults, ‘is an FBI agent who can easily make your life more interesting that in necessarily should be. So, I would suggest you leave me and my family alone and since we are on the subject, stay the hell away from Greendale, as well.’

It seemed like Alan wanted to say something, but decided against it. He glanced at the small family one last time and left without another word.

‘Is it true what you just said?’ whispered Jeff when he was sure Alan was too far away for them to hear. 

‘Of course, I know it’s not exactly ethical but I do keep tabs on our friends and enemies,’ she smiled sweetly at him and Jeff couldn’t believe what he was hearing. 

‘Annie! Isn’t that unethical and borderline illegal? Not that bothers me personally, because I loved how you smashed his ugly face, and it turns me on when you break rules Hermione style, but what if it effects your job?’

‘Relax, it’s nothing big, I just pulled a favor with Greendale police, lots of agents do something like that. And it’s not like I stalk anybody, just once in awhile I check on Britta for instance, in case she gets arrested for weed or something, so we could help her out.’

‘So, this why last year when she got into trouble, you knew before anybody else?’

‘Yep,’ she smiled brightly getting the bottle of Merlot. ‘As for this Alan guy, he is on Denver’s FBI watch list anyway, has been for some time, the cases I mentioned, that has some really shady stuff in it. I mean, I won’t get involved or anything, because I have an obvious agenda here, but there is no harm in, well, being informed.’

‘Wow, I can’t believe that after five years I learned to appreciate your pathological need for being prepared even more! You are the most organized badass in the world,’ he kissed her on the lips grinning from ear to ear. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you too,’ she smiled at Jeff, Sebbie was finally bored without his parent’s attention and demanded for them to check on him. Jeff pulled his son out of the cart and put him on his shoulders, now Seb had the view on everything and was chuckling happily checking on people and anything else his young eyes could see.


	8. To Weddings and Daydreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set sometime during season 3 era. Annie’s third cousin is getting married and asked her to help to find the wedding dress, Annie decided to try one on and ran into a familiar face.

Jeff was walking through one of the biggest the shopping centers in Denver, he was drinking coffee and looking around lazily. An attractive redhead smiled slyly at him and Jeff winked back, she was pretty and clearly an easy target but Jeff wasn’t really interested in that now, maybe later tonight. It was Saturday, after all, Greendale was far away, alongside with his study group, as much as he loved them, it was good to take a break from all the craziness. Life was good, he just spent $300 on a shirt, but it was worth it, it will totally pay off with either one of his flings or when he needs something from dean or one of his friends, especially if it was from Annie, she really appreciated when he looked good, he knew that. He smiled to himself thinking of his best friend.  
Who would have thought, that one day his best friend and partner in crime would be a twenty-year old straight-As girl in a community college? But for whatever reason him and her were a perfect duet, the best team in pretty much everything. She was so different from him, sickeningly kind to everyone, including Pierce. She really believed in things like true love, soulmates, good vs evil and maybe even unicorns. She was always trying to get to the truth and dragged him into fighting for the right thing. Sometimes it bothered Jeff to which length he was willing to go for her, especially with those damn Disney eyes she knew how to use on him. She was also really pretty…Stop, that! Don’t go there, Winger. You think about it too much lately. So, she always makes you happy when you two are together, it doesn’t mean anything like that. So, you made out with her awhile back. Maybe you even made up a sappy musical in your head where the two of you sleep together. And maybe you even imagined a few times, laying alone in the dark of your apartment, what it would be like if the two of you actually made another step. Her being all naked and moaning your name while you kiss between her breasts and touch her…

Jeff snapped himself out of the fantasy world and tried to change the train of his thoughts. He can’t keep thinking about Annie like that, she was twenty years old and he was thirty-six, damn it! She can’t even drink at the bar yet! She had a bright future ahead of her and he still wasn’t sure about his. Besides, she was definitely the marrying kind and Jeff didn’t need that at all. He was one hundred percent sincere when told his friends that marriage was a joke and nobody ever commits to it, of course he had a minor break down as well, but mehhh. They’ve all been there. 

Jeff decided to take a break and dive into his phone, he had fifteen messages in their #GreendaleSeven group-chat, definitely not gonna check it until Monday, a few text messages from the girls he picked up recently, maybe they will get his attention later and 13 snapchat notifications, Jeff frowned, that was definitely from dean. How does he block him from this thing? Taking a mental note to ask Abed or Troy about it later, Jeff went to his twitter account. After about twenty minutes he put back his phone in the pocket and noticed that all this time he was sitting in front of the wedding dress shop, not that he cared. 

He gave it a quick scan feeling an unpleasant knot in his stomach. Wow, people really would spend thousands of dollars on one party, pathetic. The store was pretty much empty. It was, however, filled with hundreds of dresses, all white and fluffy. What was the point of buying it, anyway? 

They couldn’t be comfortable and the bride would it wear only once. And for what? Sooner or later, she will start hating her husband or he will get bored with the routine, the sex will become stale and anticlimactic, and the whole thing will just collapse. In the end, they will either resent each other for the rest of their lives or one of them leaves the other. Nahh, the whole affair wasn’t worth the risk.

He noticed, that there were three people in the store, an older woman in her sixties, clearly the shop-assistant and two much younger women, who she was helping. They were both quite petite, one of them a little taller with short dark hair was trying on a mermaid cut dress, checking herself from tip to toes, she was maybe in her late twenties or early thirties. And the other one was really short and twirling around and giggling excitedly, the giggle seemed familiar to Jeff, so he focused on her for a second. When the girl stopped moving and the shop-assistant helped to put up her long dark hair in a bun, Jeff’s jaw dropped. It was Annie! Annie was in a store, trying a princess-like wedding dress. Her cheeks were red with excitement and she was chatting animatedly with the taller girl. He felt an unpleasant burning sensation in his body. What the hell? Since when was Annie getting married? 

Before Jeff could stop his feet, he found himself in the store full of wedding dresses. As soon as he realized what he was doing he panicked and was about to turn away, but this instant Annie noticed him in the huge mirror, she cried excitedly and turned around.

‘Jeff!!!’ she waved at him. Jeff didn’t have choice but to go and say “hi” and maybe to find out what the hell is going on. Annie rushed towards him and gave him a quick hug, he responded to her warm embrace as usual, lingering a little longer than he probably should have. Annie was so caught up in the wedding thing that she didn’t notice anything strange. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Well, Annie, we are in the mall and it is Saturday, so,’ he showed off his shopping bag, ‘I am shopping. The big question is, what are you doing here and when did I miss that you are getting married?’

‘Getting ma…’ she looked down at her gown and laughed. ‘I am not getting married, haha! No, it’s my cousin,’ she waved at a taller girl who was busy talking with an older lady, ‘Polly, she is getting married in three weeks! How exciting, isn’t it? She just asked me to go help her find a dress, since you know, I love this kind of thing and since I was here, we thought it would be funny for me to try one on! You know, for future reference.’

‘Ahh, I see,’ Jeff smiled feeling a huge wave of relief. What was that about? Why would he care so much? Of course, Annie was a little young to get married, but there was no reason she couldn’t. 

‘So, what do you think?’ she looked at him expecting a response on how she looked. His first instinct was to tease her on the whole wedding subject, but then he really looked at her and it felt like a bolt of lightning hit him. It was similar to the feeling he had when she put down her hair during their preparation for the debate where she kiss-attacked him. She was wearing a lush, long dress of milky color, it had a lace sweetheart neckline, which was a little daring but made Annie’s boobs look even better than usual. Her hair was in a messy bun, her cheeks were blushing from all the excitement, her big blue eyes were wide with anticipation, and she was smiling a little shyly at him, clearing hoping for his approval. 

To be honest, Jeff didn’t know how to respond. On one hand, he had an unexplainable urge to run away from the store, preferably to another state, in order to forget what Annie Edison in a wedding dress looked like. On the other, he wanted to drop on his knee and ask her to marry him right here and there. Annie had this effect on him, sometimes she would do something or say something and he would just be stuck there confused, scared and incredibly horny and without a clue how to proceed next. He shook his head to compose himself. Snap out of it, you grown man. She is your friend and she asked your opinion, that’s it. 

‘I think, you look great, Annie. Somebody will be really lucky one day,’ he said softly and his heart sank at his own words. He knew, that the chance of that somebody being him, was practically non-existant. 

‘You really think so?’ she asked grinning widely and now she looked even more beautiful.

‘Absolutely,’ his voice sincere and he hoped she would believe him. He also hoped she didn’t hear a note of longing in his voice. 

‘Thanks!’ her cousin called Annie’s name needing her help with something. ‘Sorry, I have to go now! I’ll see you on Monday, have a great weekend!’

‘You too, Annie.’


	9. Benefits of Female Friendships

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set after 5x13 Basic Sandwich episode. Britta noticed that Annie was really upset and decided to talk to her. No bashing, Britta/Annie friendship and support.

Annie, Abed and Britta came to apartment 303 to celebrate the fact the Greendale was saved and with that their places in that school. Shirley couldn’t make it, because Andre and her sons were expecting her back home and Jeff excused himself saying he had some plans tonight. Ever since he put on that stupid hamlet on, Britta noticed he was acting weird. 

Not when he broke off the engagement, because that was actually totally him, not that she was complaining, the idea of them getting married was ridiculous. But the look on his face has something else tonight, she never seen it on him and she knew Jeff really well, they were similar in so many aspects and self-destruction tendencies was something that united them best. 

She did have one suspicion but decided not to dwell on it, first of all she wasn’t sure if she was right and second, even if she was, that was none of her business. And she never liked this potential idea anyway, for Annie’s sake, she hoped she was wrong. Of course, a small part of Britta was always a little jealous of Annie and how she seemed to attract same guys as Britta and the guys would usually be much more invested and sincere about Annie than herself, she can admit that at least to herself. But most importantly, Britta knew what Jeff Winger was, that he was a terrible romantic partner, selfish both in his decisions and in bed and he was simply not good enough for Annie and she knew he knew that too. If Britta had her own “Annie” in her life she would do the same thing Jeff always did, keep her distance. 

But it seemed like for Annie all this was very serious, Britta noticed how hurt she was today and wanted to make sure that she was all right. After they had a few beers and Abed went to bed, Britta purposefully made sure Annie wasn’t going before him, she decided to clear the air. 

‘Britta, not that I am complaining, but it’s really late and I have work tomorrow, I don’t mind you staying here, but I am very tired, so if you feel like it, take the couch, but I am going to sleep,’ said Annie yawning. 

‘No, no I will be going home in a few minutes,’ Britta was sincerely hoping her landlord didn’t kick her our already. ‘I just wanted to talk to you about something first.’

‘Is everything okay?’ asked Annie with concern. 

‘You tell me, I saw how upset you were today about Jeff and me. You know that we were never actually going to get married, right? That it was just our mutual panic attack, like in that timeline Abed talks about? Where I almost married that pizza-junkie?’

‘It’s all the same to you?’ asked Annie quietly.

‘Yes, just like it is to Jeff,’ she emphasized. Britta knew it was true but she needed Annie to believe it too, not because she wanted them together, but because she wanted Annie to feel better. 

‘Maybe, but it’s not like this is any of my business anyway,’ she sighed, Annie’s eyes were sad but there were no tears in them, for some reason Britta felt it was a bad sign. 

‘Annie, you know that Jeff cares very much about you, about all of us.’

‘Of course, I do.’

‘Then why are you so upset?’

‘Britta, I know you are trying to help, but I don’t feel like discussing it,’ Britta heard cold notes in Annie’s usually warm voice. Damn it, things are worse than she thought. 

‘Annie, I know you have a crush on Jeff and you might have been upset today, but come on! You can’t stay mad at us forever!’

‘I don’t have a crush on Jeff, Britta,’ Annie said seriously. ‘And I am not mad.’

‘Then why are you so upset?’ Annie just shrugged and a thought popped in Britta’s head, part of her wanted to keep it to herself but a curious part won. ‘Oh God, Annie, do you love him?’

Annie didn’t say anything just looked away, Britta felt a pinch of guilt and fear for Annie, it was one thing wanting to bone Jeff Winger and completely something else to love him. 

‘Annie, I had no idea…I am so sorry.’

‘It’s fine, Britta, just promise you won’t tell anyone, especially Jeff. Anyway, after today, I made a decision about this whole thing.’

‘What kind of decision?’

‘That I need to move on,’ smiled Annie. ‘After what happened, it’s clearer more than ever that Jeff will never be with me that way and it’s fine, the heart wants what it wants, or in his case, doesn’t.’

Britta had her doubts about that, she, of course, didn’t know for sure, but if Jeff would ever be capable to really fall in love with someone that would be Annie. 

‘I can’t handle more of his back-and-forth bursts of affection to me or his talks about how important I am to him, I can’t play this hot/cold game anymore, if he ever wanted me, he would have done something by now,’ Annie continued. ‘Sorry, it’s a little weird to discuss these things with you.’

‘I told you that engagement wasn’t real, I promise you I have zero feelings for Jeff and he certainly never wanted to marry me, let alone loved me.’

‘Maybe, but I just don’t care anymore,’ Annie poured herself a glass of water.

‘Annie, listen,’ damn it, Britta, you just can’t keep things to yourself, can you? ‘Jeff is an ass, he always has been and your decision to move on from him is probably for the best,’ she hesitated for a second. ‘Of course, I can’t tell for sure, but I think he feels much stronger and deeply than you realize or maybe even himself. You know that emotions and openness was never his strong suit.’

‘I don’t care, Britta!’ said Annie sharply. ‘Like you said, you can’t know for sure and neither can I! The only person who can tell, refuses to have a conversation that would even resemble a mature discussion. I spent years telling myself that things will change, that he will see me as a woman not some silly girl with a crush. Everybody, from Abed to dean, keep asking me about what is going on between us and I could never answer them. But now I can, nothing is going on and nothing will ever be going on. I am done.’ 

‘Annie,’ Britta said softly. But Annie wouldn’t let her finish.

‘I thought, you, of all people, would understand the best, you said it yourself how terrible Jeff is in relationships and I finally saw it today for myself and accepted it. He will never want things like marriage and love same way I want them, he will never want to settle down for a real relationship that will require not only one minute passion, but work and commitment. And it’s fine. It’s who he is, but it’s not who I am. And today I made a choice for myself and my future, and unfortunately, Jeff is not part of it anymore.’ 

Britta looked Annie with eyes wide open. When did their little Annie who loved butterflies and floral skirts turned into this force of a woman? How did Britta miss that? Did Jeff and everyone else see that? Britta thought for a minute about what Annie said.

‘You are absolutely right, Annie. It’s a good decision, you don’t need someone like Jeff in your life. No self-respecting woman does. He is not suited for this stuff and I am glad you can finally see him for what he is. I am sorry, I will never bother you with this again.’

‘Thank you and hey, don’t worry about me, I’ll get over it, I am in my twenties. All girls should have that someone who breaks their heart at some point, shouldn’t they?’

‘Yep, that’s part of us becoming awesome and independent. Just don’t make my mistakes, don’t let Jeff become your Blade.’

‘I won’t, I will never open my heart for him again,’ Annie smiled at Britta faintly. She gave Annie a big hug hoping that Annie would be strong enough to keep her word.


	10. Four Nightmares of Jeff Winger and one Reality he lives in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set 2 years after 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television. Jeff and Annie have been married for over a year now and everything is good in their new life together. But Jeff still has struggles with his anxieties and fears and once in awhile, they manifest themselves in the nightmares. 
> 
> WARNING! MATURE!

*Old!Jeff meets New!Jeff*

+++++++++++++++++

He looks at himself as if through a glass, seeing Old!Jeff trying to get to the study group, to sleep with Britta. He is seven years younger, a little thinner and has no beard that New!Jeff has been wearing non-stop for the past three years. At Old!Jeff’s speech to Britta New!Jeff winced, was he really that bad? Why on Earth did his friends accept him? 

The scene changes to them finding him on the stairs. New!Jeff studies carefully his friends, everything changed so much. Shirley was now far away and got back together with Andre, Troy travelled around the entire world, Pierce was dead, Britta, well, Britta didn’t change a lot, she was still the same hippie-screw up he found so hot back then. Abed was so much more confident nowadays, making his name in Hollywood. And Annie…his beautiful, loving wife was so young, so wonderfully naive back then and Old!Jeff knew that, good thing he had at least some decency not to act on his impulses, because well, he knew how he felt about Annie ever since the debate thing. 

The time slowed and the Old!Jeff noticed the New!Jeff. The study group froze and the Old!Jeff approached the New!Jeff studying his face carefully. 

‘Please, tell me you are not here to inform me that this was some huge moment in my life,’ Old!Jeff’s voice was distant, like if he was hearing from across the room. 

‘You have no idea,’ New!Jeff answers looking at his younger face.

‘So, what’s it like in the future?’

‘It’s good, much better than now.’

‘You have a wedding band,’ says Old!Jeff frowning. ‘What’s that about? Please tell me we didn’t marry this Britta girl. I mean she is hot and all, but she is practically a female version of us.’

‘She is a female version of you, not me,’ protested New!Jeff. ‘I have changed.’

‘Are you sure about that?’ asked Old!Jeff squinting at him. 

‘Yes, they helped me change,’ New!Jeff pointed out at the group of the imaginary versions of his friends. 

‘So, what, in that future you are all morally decent? Faithful husband? Good friend? Are you even still Jeff Winger? It’s impossible. We are too far gone.’

‘Not always, decent, no. A good friend on occasion, and I am a faithful husband. I try my best to be the best version of us.’

‘I should have run away from this place the minute they showed they cared, shouldn’t I have? Caring is a weakness and they infected me.’

‘Yes, but I wouldn’t have done it any other way.’

‘You still haven’t told me how someone managed to talk you into whole marriage thing. We hate it, remember?’

‘You hate it, I’ve grown to love it.’

‘So what? Somewhere down the road I will meet this superwoman who will rock my world? Don’t be ridiculous!’

‘You already have met her,’ said New!Jeff.

‘Who? You said it wasn’t Britta. Is it someone from our past? That would be awful, unless it’s Samantha. But wouldn’t we make a terrible father to her kid?’

‘It’s not Samantha,’ New!Jeff felt a punch of guilt going back to the woman he once thought was perfect for him. ‘It’s Annie.’

‘Annie? Annie Edison? Are you kidding me, Winger? She is eighteen! Don’t tell me we were the creep who ruined her life!’

‘It wasn’t like that!’ yelled New!Jeff panting heavily. Annie promised him that he was never that, that she loved him and he made her happy. He doesn’t have to believe himself, but he believes her. 

‘Yeah, right. Cause we are so good at the whole relationship thing.’

‘We are not, but she made us better.’

‘I should turn around now and disappear from her life, shouldn’t I? I don’t want to be responsible.’

‘I love Annie and she loves me,’ says New!Jeff and Old!Jeff starts cracking up.

‘Love is for idiots! God, what have I become? You are a monster, Winger, and monsters don’t get happy endings.’

The world is spinning and Jeff wakes up covered it sweat. Annie is right next to him breathing evenly in her sleep, he leans in tugging her closer to himself, hoping that her faith in him will be enough for both of them. 

++++++++++++++++

*He lets her go*

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

They are in the study room, the same room where two years ago Jeff told Annie how he felt, right before her internship. They joke about Marvel movies and Jeff is about to make the move, to tell her the truth. But he chokes up on the words and Annie looks at him with pity and regret. She soon tells him that the others are coming, they all talk a little and he drives home alone. 

He never sees her again, not since hers and Abed’s farewell party. They asked him to drive them to the airport but Jeff refuses, he can’t watch Annie leave. He already has to somehow accept her departure from his life and he can’t be a first-hand witness to that. 

He keeps working at Greendale, drinking more and more every day. He hooks up with Britta once or twice, but it’s still the same, it never ends well pass the sex. Sometimes he hears the news about his former friends, how Troy came back and lives with Abed now, how Shirley becomes a grandmother, how Annie is now on a mission overseas, working tirelessly for FBI. He never answers her calls or texts and in the end, she never texts him again.  
Years are passing by and Jeff is still a teacher at Greendale, he and Duncan are drinking cheap scotch during classes. He is still hot, a silver fox they call him so he starts hooking up with his students. One day Britta tells him that Annie is getting married and invites all of them, including him for the main event in DC. He doesn’t go, no, he can’t let her see him like this, all broken and angry and he can’t see her. She would be all beautiful and glowing and he would punch the face of the man who stole her from him. 

+++++++++++++

*Issues of fathers and sons*

++++++++++++++++++

He is 5 years old and his dad is hitting him, he is drunk and terrifying and in Jeff’s mind he is this giant with huge red eyes that is about to crash their house. His mom manages to snatch Jeff away and they run and run until they get to the neighbors’ house. Jeff feels safe away from this demon.

He is eight and it happens again, the demon is yelling and crashing everything around him, his mother pleading the demon to stop but he laughs at her, he hits her too and Jeff can’t take it anymore he is throwing all things his little hands can reach at his father to protect his mother. The demon looks at him and smirks, he then packs up his stuff and never comes back. Jeff still loves his mom, but he doesn’t trust her anymore, she couldn’t protect them. 

He is thirty-eight and he meets his father for the first time in decades. He still remembers everything, but gives his dad a benefit of doubt, like his friends taught him to, but it fails dramatically, some monsters can’t be cured.

He is forty-one and Annie quietly suggests they invite his father to their wedding. His answer is harsh and a little angry and then he feels sorry for snapping at Annie who was just trying to help, as always. That night, the demon comes for him again in his sleep. 

+++++++++++++++++

*Failed marriages*

++++++++++++++++++++++

They save Greendale, but for whatever reason he and Britta decided to go through the wedding thing. They decide to make a huge party and invite the whole school. They say their wedding vows but he doesn’t believe a word he says. Annie is there, among their friends. She looks at him with her sad blue eyes but doesn’t say anything, she tries to smile and wishes them all the best.  
He gives her a one last longing hug and gets back to his new wife. The last thing Jeff hears about her is that Annie moves to DC and transfers to school at Quantico and never comes back.  
He and Britta are unhappy, but that’s fine because marriage is not about happiness. They last a year, mostly out of stubbornness to prove something to each other and the rest of the world. In the end, Jeffs packs up his stuff and leaves never looking back. Britta is not trying to stop him, she is already been seeing someone else for awhile. Jeff is all alone, everybody left and he and Britta can’t be even friends anymore, too many things has been said and done. So he drinks until he doesn’t remember. 

+++++++++

*When he wakes up…*

+++++++++++++++

When he wakes up, Jeff sees the snowflakes falling down softly behind the window. His phone alarm is beeping loudly telling him that it’s time to get ready for work. The bed is empty, because, of course Annie is already awake, she always wakes up with sunrise, while he tries to get every minute of sleep, even though sometimes his sleep was restless. He doesn’t remember much of his nightmares but he knows what they are all about. 

He goes downstairs and sees Annie, already all dressed up, making coffee for them. She smiles at him and his heart is pounding against his chest. He is still half-awake but he kisses her deeply distracting from morning coffee and breakfast, she kisses him back but breaks it off quickly laughing at his morning hair. Annie glances at the clock on the wall and smacks his shoulder, fussing around that he will make her late again. He grins at how fast she talks, listing all the things she planned for today. She gives him a goodbye kiss and runs towards the front door, reminding him that they meet at five today so they could do Christmas/Hanukkah shopping. He nods at her and finishes his fresh-made coffee. 

Those were the things that made his life truly happy.


	11. The Art of Flirting 103

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set after 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television. Jeff and Annie are married and live in DC, Jeff works as a lawyer and his work buddy Charlie takes him down for drinks after work. OMC/OFC.

Jeff and Charlie became really good friends over last couple of years. Charles Warren was a good guy, typical family man in his late thirties, he was a little heavy and bolding, but had a great sense of humor. He admired Jeff’s ability to talk his way through pretty much anything and Jeff enjoyed his admiration. Annie and Sandra, Charlie’s wife, got along great and they even made to a few couple dates together. 

Sometimes, Charlie and Jeff would go out for drinks after work, today was that day. The firm they worked at let them go earlier, since all active cases were done, so Charlie and Jeff went to ‘Patrick’s’ before heading back home. Annie was at work anyway, Sebastian was at daycare until five, Jeff was going to pick him up later, so he decided to go with only one drink today. Besides, if he gets home earlier, he can cook dinner, put down Sebastian to sleep earlier and that means when Annie comes back from work, they can solely focus on a practice for a kid number two. 

Charlie and Jeff were laughing about another dumb case they worked a few weeks ago, when a tall attractive, blonde woman in her thirties approached their table. 

‘Excuse me,’ said the woman looking at Jeff from up and down. ‘Sorry to interrupt, but my friend and I were just wondering if you would like to join us for the evening.’

‘Thanx for the offer,’ Jeff gave her his most charming smile. ‘But I am here with a friend too.’

‘He can join us too if he likes,’ she said hesitantly, clearly her intention was Jeff, but she was willing to negotiate. 

‘No offence, but we are kind of in the middle of something here,’ said Jeff a little firmly. ‘And besides, I am married. And so is my friend.’

‘Oh, so am I, sugar, but it shouldn’t be a reason not to have fun once in awhile,’ she smiles slyly at him and touched his shoulder. Jeff tensed a little, his smile disappeared completely.

‘I am happily married, so no thanks,’ the woman gave him a look and then leaned down, so Jeff would see down her cleavage, she pushed a piece of paper with a number on it. 

‘In case you change your mind,’ she walked away gracefully, clearly still interested in making the evening spicy. 

Jeff took the piece of paper and tossed it to the ashtray. Not that he wasn’t flattered, of course he was and he still loved the attention a little too much, just like before he settled down. Charlie waited until the woman was far away and laughed silently staring at Jeff’s self-satisfied face.

‘Every single time, man! How do you do that?’

‘I didn’t do anything, Charles. She hit on me.’

‘I know, but come on! Every time we go out to somewhere like this, you get hit on! And I am just sitting there like a piece of furniture, my self-esteem already suffers over the fact that you are almost ten years older but look fifteen years younger than me!’

‘I offered you to join me at the gym,’ smirked Jeff. Charlie was a good guy and he liked him, but he knew that he was a little too lazy to stay in shape. 

‘Nahhh,’ answers Charlie sipping his second beer. ‘It’s too much work, besides I already got Sandra to marry me so all sore muscles and sweat are not worth it.’

‘Then stop complaining! And besides, we are both taken, it’s not like anything was going to happen.’

‘Can I ask you something?’ asked Charlie whispering over the table.

‘Sure, shoot,’ Jeff was kind of scared about the glimmer he noticed in his friend’s eyes.

‘Aren’t you a little bit tempted? I mean, you know I adore Annie and you two are solid as heck, but still. If women would throw themselves at me like they do at you, I am not sure I would be able to resist this pressure.’

‘Years of practice, my friend,’ grinned Jeff. 

‘Come on, be serious!’

‘I am,’ Jeff sighed and took a sip of his scotch. ‘Look, before Annie, I was a player big time and I loved it, believe me! And even after that, as you know Annie and I got together only six years after we met and most of those six years, we kept things in a friendzone.’

‘Yeah, yeah, right, she was eighteen when you guys met,’ nodded Charlie.

‘Precisely, but I am not exactly a monk, so you know things happened,’ he winked at Charlie knowingly. ‘But after Annie agreed to date me, I don’t know, it’s just not worth the risk. She has always been my best friend even back at college and when we became a couple, I could never hurt her like that and trust me Annie would never ever forgive me. Most likely she would murder me and use her FBI connections to cover the tracks,’ Jeff joked thinking about all the times Annie was jealous. Which was funny, because once he knew for sure he loved her, she never had to worry about that. He, on the other hand, had plenty of reasons. The fact that she was working in mostly male environment and those males were all athletic, intelligent FBI agents and sometimes one of those male coworkers would show interest in her, despite knowing that she is married. That was making him sweat on occasion, but he wasn’t going to admit it to Charlie. ‘Don’t let her size fool you, she is fierce as hell and a little too possessive.’

‘But you are OK with that?’

‘More than OK, I fucking love it. Did I ever tell you how she broke my nose when she learned I slept with a friend of ours? It was way, way back long before we were a thing and now Annie and Britta, the girl I hooked up with, are really good friends.’

‘Britta? From your study group? You never told me you and her were a thing, you sly dog!’

‘We weren’t, we were just hooking up occasionally. And it was like eight years ago.’

‘Then why Annie broke your nose if you weren’t dating then?’

‘Because it’s Annie, she chose me, for whatever reason, before I caught up with her and thank God for that, because before her I was really bad at this relationship stuff, even though I was already very much into her. When we finally became a couple, I knew that I would literally do anything to be with her. And turning down women? That’s the easiest thing to do for me now.’

‘Man, I keep forgetting all about how complicated your relationship was, when we met you, you seemed so normal,’ laughed Charlie. 

‘Biggest illusion ever, we were never normal and this is the best part!’


	12. Twenty Years Ago

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Very angsty AU, set after 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television, everything is canon except the airport scene. After the confession Jeff still failed to actually commit to relationship with Annie and lets her go completely. She leaves for DC and never comes back. Twenty years later, they meet up in Greendale. OC.

Craig’s funeral went smoothly. The crowd was huge, current students and alumni, professors and family, everybody gathered to say their farewells to Dean Pelton who held his position for almost forty years. He wasn’t a perfect dean or even a good administrator, but he was a kind-hearted person and it was a big loss for everybody who knew him. 

Among the crowd, there was a tall, handsome man in his early sixties, although no one would think that he was that age. Jeff Winger was still in a perfect shape, although years took a toll on him too. His once perfectly sculpted body was a little softer on the waist, he had wrinkles that no amount of cream could fix, his hair and beard was silver now, his eyes once full of fire were dimmed with the heavy weight of years, grief and emptiness of his life. He chose this life, like he said to his former study group a million years ago “nut up and die alone”, that is exactly what he is going to do in a few decades if his drinking habits won’t finish him first. 

In the last twenty years Jeff changed into completely something else. Nothing left of the quick-witted, charming and funny ex-lawyer. With every year he was turning to be more and more like Pierce, angry, lonely and desperate. His former friends all moved on or passed away. Craig and Chang were gone, Frankie left Greendale years ago, Duncan and Britta got married and moved to New York, Abed was now s famous script-writer, Troy lived in Puerto Rico married to a woman he met during his travels with their five kids. Shirley was now a grandmother to a bunch of grandkids. And Annie…his old heart clutched in pain, even after twenty years he was still filled with regret. If only he committed to her like she wanted him to, if only he took her to the airport like she asked him to, if he followed her to DC, everything would be different. His life would be different. The last time he heard about her was ten years ago when Britta called him to tell that Annie was getting married. She never invited him to the ceremony, not that he would have come, but after their lives went separate ways, he never made an effort to keep in touch with her. 

Jeff’s imagination was playing this trick before on him. How many times over past twenty years he imagined her coming back to him? Finding him and slapping some sense into him? But she never did, it wasn’t her job to fix him. She made so many steps towards him and instead of meeting her half-way he did what he always did, he ran away, the only thing that he managed to do was to make sure that she knew that despite him being a jerk and a coward, he loved her. And now looking at the crowd he was seeing a woman who was stickingly alike to Annie. The woman looked him right in the eyes and Jeff’s jaw dropped. It was Annie, only twenty years older, in his mind she never aged but seeing her now, after all this time, it was unmistakable. She recognized him too, judging by the size of her eyes. Jeff’s first instinct was to run but his legs were heavy. Annie slowly approached him and Jeff couldn’t find words. She was still the most beautiful woman he ever met, although her youthful glow and determination now changed into maturity and self-awareness. Her hair was now much shorter and she was a little heavier, she was wearing a long black coat and high-heel boots. But her eyes were still of the same shade of blue as the day he met her, she smiled at him tentatively.

‘Jeff? Jeff Winger?’ she asked him clearly nervous she made a mistake.

‘Annie,’ he finally managed to move his lips and breathed out her name. 

‘I can’t believe, it’s you,’ she shook her head. ‘Wow, it’s been a minute.’

‘Longer than a minute.’  
‘Yeah, too bad that we have to meet under such circumstances,’ she glanced at the crowd that now were stretching out, the ceremony was over. ‘Craig was a good man.’

‘He was, despite his terrible fashion choices,’ he tried for a joke not sure how appropriate this was given the circumstances but Annie clearly didn’t mind.

‘That’s true,’ she nodded lost in her memories. ‘So, how have you been?’

‘You know, same old, same old. Greendale sucking the life out of me even now, but I guess I grew to appreciate it.’

‘Are you going to become the next dean here?’

‘The board is talking about it, but I am not sure. Maybe I will retire and finally enjoy the freedom.’

‘I think you’d make an amazing dean,’ she offered kindly. 

‘We’ll see. What about you? Still fighting crime?’

‘Yep, but now I mostly do lecturing in the Academy and consult,’ she hesitated and added. ‘My family takes a lot of time, so I can’t travel as much as I did when I joined the Bureau.’

‘Right, right, I heard you got married,’ Jeff tried his best not to show how much he resented the fact that she married someone else. Not that he could blame anybody but himself. ‘I assume you have a house full of kids by now.’

‘Well, not full, only two. Emma is nine, she is my oldest. And our son…’ she looked him straight in the eyes. ‘I named him, Jeffrey, he is only four.’ 

Jeff’s heart stopped for a second. She named her son after him. Annie has a son and she named him after *him*. He wanted to say something, to tell her how much it meant to him that despite their history, she still remembered him, still cared about him enough to name her child, Jeffrey. 

‘I...I don’t know what to say. Thank you,’ he said sincerely. 

‘You don’t have to say anything, I always loved you, Jeff, and I always will, no matter what,’ he looked at her with his eyes wide open, even now, after twenty years Annie still managed to knock him off completely. She took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze the same one she did twenty years ago when he had his best chance with her. She let him go and smiled sadly. 

‘I have to leave, my husband is waiting for me.’

‘Yes, of course. Annie, I…’ I love you too, he wanted to say, I am sorry I never gave us a chance, I am sorry for everything. Instead, he just stood there. She nodded and he knew she understood all things he wanted to say, but it was twenty years too late and her family was waiting for her back home.

‘Good-bye, Jeff.’

‘Bye, Annie.’


	13. The Vows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set a year after 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television. Annie and Jeff are living in DC and about to get married in a week. They need to write their wedding vows and ask their friends to help them. Based on one of my favorite "Friends" episode 7x21 The One With The Vows. Fluff and Fun.

#BOYS

The former study group was now in a panic mode at the small house where Annie and Jeff lived for the past year. In three days, they were getting married and everything was ready. The venue was decorated and menu agreed on, the dress was in Annie’s closet, the rings were safe and sound in Abed’s possession. The only thing that was absolutely killing them were the vows, both Jeff and Annie completely forgot about that part of the wedding until Shirley asked them about it. And now, they divided themselves into groups trying to make their friends help them with perfect words for the ceremony. Annie, Shirley and Britta occupied the bedroom, while Jeff, Abed and Troy were busting their asses on Jeff’s vow in the living room. 

‘Annie, there are no words…’ Jeff scribbled on the piece of paper. ‘There are no words! This should not be this hard!’

‘All right, uh…’ says Troy jumping on his feet nervously. ‘We should call someone who has done it before!’

‘Like who?’ asked Abed.

‘I don’t know! We can maybe try summon Pierce’s spirit! He was married seven times!’

‘I’m so pathetic!’ groans Jeff in frustration. ‘Annie knows what she wants to say! You should’ve seen her. Writing, writing, writing!’

‘Why don’t you just start with something simple,’ Abed suggests. ‘Like umm, Annie, from the moment I met you, I knew I loved you.’

‘Yeah, I’m not sure I can do that,’ frowns Jeff. 

‘Why not?’ asks Troy. 

‘Because that’s a lie!’

‘Hmmm, think back, Jeff,’ insists Abed. ‘What was your first impression of Annie?’

‘What an annoying nerd in a tight sweater?’

‘Yeah, that’s not gonna work,’ sighs Troy. ‘How about that? When was the first time you thought that Annie was hot?’

Jeff’s mind raced back to their first year when they were preparing for a debate and Annie decided that she needs to be more spontaneous, he will never forget that moment, the way she put down her hair and smiled at him shyly waiting for his approval. It was the first of many knock downs he received from Annie Edison.

‘Ok, this is good one!’ Jeff cried excitedly. ‘But how do I put into words?’

‘Jeff, you have a black belt on a jibber-jabber!’ yells Troy.

‘I know, but this is wedding vows, it’s so unbelievably hard!’

‘Oh, I got it! How about saying something like, "Annie…’ says Troy clearly feeling inspired. 

‘Annie,’ Jeff writes down quickly. 

‘…when I look back over our time together…’

‘Yeah?’ prompts Jeff.

‘Well, I can’t do everything! Look back over your time together!’

‘I am looking!’

‘And what do you see?’ asks Abed.

Him and Annie are kissing after Tranny dance, him and Annie looking into conspiracy theory, fighting the paintball, lava game, all the stolen looks, their study room conversation, him taking her to the airport, their first mind-blowing sex, Jeff’s proposing to her in Disneyland. 

‘We have known each other for seven years! There are too many, I can’t choose! This is a disaster!’

‘All, right, all right, calm down. We will think of something!’ says Troy reassuringly. 

#GIRLS

Annie is pacing nervously in the bedroom. How could this have happened? She is always prepared for everything! And in three days is the most important day in her life and she has no vows! NO VOWS! 

‘Annie, dear, are you OK?’ asked Shirley coming into the bedroom after she and Britta received a phone call from all Annie yelling and crying.

‘What is the emergency?!’ Britta looked at Annie as if the latter was slightly insane. 

‘You have to help me!’ Annie grabbed Britta’s hand and shook it frantically looking back in forth from Shirley to Britta. ‘I’m supposed to be writing my vows and all I have is this!’

Annie shoves her notebook right in front of their noses. 

‘Well, I like the pretty little drawing of you in the wedding dress,’ offers Shirley kindly.

‘Thank you!’

‘Yeah, except your boobs look kinda small,’ Britta points down to the cringy drawing of Annie the bride.

‘Those are my eyes, Britta! Those are my breasts,’ she points down.

‘Yeah! That’s more like it,’ Annie rolls her eyes at Britta’s excitement. 

‘Okay. Okay. Okay,’ says Shirley taking off her coat. ‘Umm, maybe you can start with, "Jeff, from the moment I met you I knew that we were meant to be together”.’

‘Ooh, are we allowed to lie in the vows?!’ exclaims Annie excitedly. Given all the hard time Jeff gave her about their relationship, she definitely had her doubts.

‘Well maybe you don’t talk what happened back then. Maybe you just say something about, y’know, all the things that he’s taught you. Like…’ Shirley was trying desperately to find something.

‘Given Jeff’s impeccable immaturity about pretty much everything it should be the other way around,’ snorts Britta. 

Annie was lost in the memories, all the times she pushed Jeff to do the right thing, all the times she encouraged him to be open and real about his feelings, times where she proved him again and again how much better he can be if he tried a little. 

‘Oh, think about the time when you first kissed,’ breaks in Shirley. ‘Or when you realized you loved him for the first time.’

‘Or about first sex,’ says Britta chewing on a cracker. 

‘Britta!’ say Shirley and Annie in unison. 

‘What? Sex is important!’

‘Yes, but I am not going to include it into my wedding vows!’

‘Besides, Annie should have waited until she and Jeff were married and even though they didn’t wait, there is no need to emphasize it,’ adds Shirley sweetly. Annie and Britta look at each other and change the subject. 

#FRIENDS 

Troy, Abed, Shirley and Britta decided go out for coffee and leave the long-suffering couple alone to work on their vows. They agreed to meet all later in the café next to Annie and Jeff’s place. 

‘Hey, what have you guys been up to?’ asked Shirley when Abed and Troy found them in the café. 

‘Oh, we were helping Jeff write his vows, but he kicked us out because Troy kept making inappropriate suggestions,’ said Abed calmly.

‘How is "Annie, I love your big boobs," inappropriate?’ Troy was clearly annoyed his genius being ignored.

Everybody looked at him accusingly. 

‘How’s Annie coming along with her vows?’ asked Abed.

‘Well let’s just say its…she’s lucky she has big boobs, ‘cause she’s not so good at the writing,’ Britta snorted and the group laughed a little. 

‘I can’t believe that in three days they’re gonnta be married!’ Abed said dreamingly.

‘Well let’s just hope it works. Y’know, nine out of ten marriages end in divorce?’ Britta’s optimism was as present as ever.

‘Britta! That’s not true,’ Shirley was clearly unimpressed.

‘Yeah, you’re right. Hey, remember that time you and Andre got a divorce!?’ 

Shirley glared at Britta but said nothing.

‘I can’t believe they’ve been together for a whole year!’ Troy was clearly trying not to tear up.

‘It feels longer somehow,’ frowns Britta. 

‘That’s because for six years before they officially became a couple, they were an almost couple way too many times,’ shrugs Abed and everybody murmurs in agreement. 

‘It did take them a long time to get there and, Lord help me, but Jeffrey could be so thick sometimes,’ says Shirley quietly. 

‘That’s because until Annie, his longest and healthiest relationship was with his night cream,’ Britta comments thinking back about the times she and Jeff hooked up.

‘I am glad they are finally getting married. It’s that satisfying end every show should have. Two heroes overcome challenges and trials, rediscover each other and share their moment of victory with their friends,’ Abed smiled to himself a little.

At this moment the door of the café opened and Jeff and Annie rushed in holding hands. 

‘Hey, you guys!’ Annie waves happily at the small group.

‘Hey,’ winkes Troy.

‘What’s going on?’ asks Jeff squinting his eyes. 

‘Well, we were just talking about you guys getting married and how great it is,’ smiles Shirley.

‘Aww, that’s so sweet!’

‘So, we both finished our vows,’ says Jeff proudly.

‘Oh, can we read them? Pleaseeee?’ pleads Troy holding back tears but failing.

‘Nope, nope, nope!’ Jeff and Annie both shake their heads and Annie continues. ‘We love you guys, but keeping secrets in this group is impossible, I don’t want to ruin the surprise!’

‘And I already had way too much sentimental crap for today, so now I just want to hang out with my friends and fiancée.’

‘Still can’t believe that you are actually getting married, Winger, you are a traitor! No offence, Annie,’ said Britta giving him a look.

‘None taken,’ smiled Annie and kissed Jeff to which he happily responded. ‘No one expected life to turn this way, but here we are.’

‘Yep, and I wouldn’t change a single thing,’ answers Jeff grinning. 

‘Boooooooo!’ Britta, Troy, Abed and Shirley tossed the papers at them and then broke into laughter.


	14. The Harsh Truth of Being in Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set right after 5x13 Basic Sandwich. Can be AU, but doesn’t contradict canon so can be considered as a missing scene, so Abed tells Shirley all the details about what happened in the lab. Before Shirley’s departure, she decides to have a brutally honest conversation with Jeff.

Shirley was leaving, yet another person Jeff cared about was leaving this time for Atlanta. He didn’t know if she comes back, her family is still staying in Colorado until she decides, so Jeff was sure she will visit them at least one more time, but in any case, he knew that his gossip partner is leaving, spinning off, as Abed would put it.

It was the end of August and the semester was going to start soon. His friends were busy with work and vacations and he didn’t see much of them. Which was good, no matter how much he missed them, this distance was kind of good. After their little stunt with Britta, he was still uncomfortable and judging by her lack of usually snarky texts, so was she. She was travelling somewhere north apparently, hiking in a tent or something judging from her Instagram pics. Good, the further she is, the better. 

Abed was busy with his movies, he sent Jeff a few links for his opinion, but Jeff still haven’t seen them, he will, probably, where the time is right. As for Annie…That was so complicated. He missed her like crazy, he wanted to talk to her about what happened, to apologize, to make her understand, but any time they were about to hang out together, she would cancel last minute. He knew she was avoiding being just the two of them and he had nobody to blame but himself. When they were in the group it seemed nothing changed, she was still sweet and smiley and teased him whenever he was being a smart-ass, but as soon as it was just the two of them, she wouldn’t meet his eyes and tries her best to excuse herself. He didn’t know what to do, he wanted to make up with her, to be her closest friend again, but she wouldn’t let him. The Borchert’s lab butchered their friendship, or rather Jeff’s yet another reckless decision. It was also the day he knew for sure, that no matter how hard he tries or how far away he runs, she will always be in his head and in his heart and nothing can change that. He wanted so badly to tell her, but he didn’t know how she would react now and losing their friendship, losing her forever? No, this was something he was incapable of.

When Shirley asked him to help her ship some of the stuff to Atlanta, Jeff eagerly agreed. It was good to hang out with someone who didn’t have any complicated issues with him. Shirley’s minivan broke down and Andre was busy with the kids, so Jeff was Shirley’s manpower today. After they left all the boxes at the post office, Jeff invited Shirley for a drink to which she eagerly agreed, she was clearly a little tired of all her troubles and new responsibilities. 

They were sitting in a small bar, Jeff ordered scotch and Shirley got herself some wine. She talked about how worried she was about her family and how she is going to miss all of them, Jeff could only nod, there is nothing much he could add. Suddenly, Shirley looked at him squinting her eyes, some troubling question was clearly on her mind. 

‘Why are you looking at me like that, Shirley?’ smirked Jeff. He was sure she was about to make a speech about Jesus and how important it is to accept the challenges gracefully, he didn’t mind, she was leaving, after all. 

‘I need to talk about you something before I leave and I need you to listen to me very carefully and save your comments for later,’ her voice was the same when she was about to scold one of them.

‘Jezz, Shirley, what did I do here?’

‘You need to stop messing around with Annie,’ she said dead serious.

‘I beg your pardon?’ he was trying to play it cool, but his palms got all sweaty and his heart jumped to his throat. He did not expect that.

‘Abed told me all about what happened in that lunatic’s lab. How you and Britta decided to get married and then broke it off. And how Annie reacted to it.’

‘I don’t think it’s any of your bus…’ he tried for a defense but Shirley was having none of it. 

‘Now, listen to me, Jeffrey. You can play with Britta as much you want, she is just as screwed up as you are and she can handle you being a jerk better than anybody. When we just met, I really thought you and her would be cute together, but both of you proved it to everybody that you being a couple is a complete and utter disaster. However, you are both adults and if you want to ruin your lives, be my guest. But you need to let go of Annie.’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about,’ he said trying his best to play it dumb. Shirley just rolled her eyes. 

‘You are being cruel to her!’ at this words Jeff winced, he didn’t expect it to cut him this deep. ‘You play with her feelings, keeping her interested enough but at the same keeping a safe distance. You either need to commit to whatever it is has been going on with the two of you for the past years or stop it for good. That girl has the biggest heart and you are ruining her!’

‘Shirley, I am not doing anything! And even if I did, I still don’t see how any of my relationships are any of your concern!’ 

‘It’s not about you, you sly son of a bitch!’ she snapped and then composed herself. ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to go that far. It is about Annie! I know you care about her, maybe even love her in your own weird way, but she doesn’t deserve it! She deserves being treated with love, respect and openness and she needs a man who will be ready to commit to it. Not some self-proclaimed womanizer who is too busy with his own issues to see what an amazing woman she is for him.’ 

‘You know what?’ Jeff stood up feeling annoyed to his bones, he knew that Shirley was right, but he didn’t expect her to throw all this right into his face, he was her friend too. ‘I don’t need to hear this and I don’t need you to lecture me about things you have no idea about!’

‘Oh, I have an idea, all right,’ she grabbed his hand and put him back to his seat and then leaned to look him right into his eyes, Jeff’s first instinct was to set himself free, but the part of him wanted to stay, the part of him wanted someone to slap some sense into him. ‘You are afraid, you are confused and you don’t know what to do. You’ve never been in love and…’

‘How do you?..’ his heart skipped a beat. 

‘The only person who doesn’t know is Annie, believe me, you are not as subtle as you think you are. Your fears are perfectly normal, but, Jeffrey, if you don’t man up and accept it you are going to ruin both of your lives with this attitude.’ 

‘I don’t know if I can,’ he admits quietly. 

‘Then let go of her, completely. Let her live her life, let her leave Greendale when the time comes. Let her get over you. If you can’t give her what she wants, you need to do it.’

‘What about what I want?’ he asked Shirley feeling a little ashamed. 

‘That’s the thing, Jeffrey, when you love someone, you put their interest before yours. And if you actually love her, do that. For once, think about what will be best for Annie.’


	15. Damn it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short set of drabbles based on evolvement of Jeff’s feelings for Annie, take a span from season one till the end and beyond. Just fun and fluff and a tiny bit of angst.

*Remorse*

‘And don't bother trying that thing women do where they walk away and make the guy feel like crap, because it won't happen. Yeah.’ Jeff watched Annie’s slim figure in the distance and a nasty feeling that he usually ignores spread through his veins, he feels bad for hurting her feelings! Wait what? Jeff Winger doesn’t care for people’s feelings, especially some young, annoying go-getter in a tight sweater who, apparently, always tries to do the right thing and now makes him feel like he should too. Where did that come from? Doesn’t matter, he needed to talk to Troy, no matter how much it annoys him, Annie was right. But what bothers him more is that he cared that she was right and he was wrong. 

‘Damn it!’

*Attraction*

‘You're right,’ Annie was so adorably upset about the stupid debate, it was cute. He really wanted to help her win, especially after that jerk insulted both of them. ‘Simmons is so good at using his inherent magnetism to sell his points, and here I am, like a spinster librarian with my hair pulled back!’

‘Yeah,’ Jeff said, not expecting what was coming next. Annie slowly reached her hair band and took down her sick, dark hair, she smiled shyly at him and for the first time since they met Jeff noticed that she wasn’t just a little annoying girl from his study group. She was hot! Wait what?

‘What do you think?’ she asked him cheekily. He was sure his eyes were about to pop out like in a cartoon.

‘Yeah,’ Jeff managed to breathe out, his brain was gradually shutting down. 

‘Thanks,’ she smiled cheerfully and got back to her books.

‘Be careful,’ Shirley stormed in and giggled. ‘Abed thinks you two are gonna kiss.’

‘Ridiculous,’ says Jeff immediately, because this is the right reaction. She is eighteen, you dirty old man! But then he looked at her pink lips and confusion got stronger. ‘Us. Kissing. That is ridiculous.’

‘Totally,’ Annie smiled looking at him with a newfound curiosity. 

‘Yes. Um, okay,’ he brings himself back to reality where he doesn’t think what it would be like to taste her lips. ‘The people are inherently evil.’

‘Ooh, we can use this Hobbes quote,’ prompts Annie, she stands up and leans closer to him showing the said quote and when did she took off her sweater? Why her boobs were on his shoulders? Why are they so nice? Winger, don’t look there! Think about Hobbes and debate, not the fact that you already imagined her naked, “ ‘man is a collection of base animal urges. To act on them and experience sinful pleasure would be morally no different than taking a breath”.’

She looks at him with pure horror in her eyes and he was sure he looked back at her exactly the same.

‘That's poignant, right?’ yells Annie and jumps away from him. Jeff feels that the blood was now quickly running towards his nether regions. 

‘Yeah,’ he starches in order to get his body back on track. He can not think of Annie that way! ‘You know, maybe we should study alone.’

‘Yeah,’ she agrees a little too quickly. Wait, did she feel something too?

‘Separately,’ that’s the right thing to do, Jeff thinks.

‘Uh-huh. That way we can be more reproductive--productive!’ did she just say reproductive? 

‘Bye!’ they both yell at the same time. He is trying to go for their usual hug but it feels like the air was heavy with tension, so he pats her on the head and runs away, hoping she didn’t notice a newly formed bulge on his jeans.

‘Oh, you forgot your phone,’ he hears her voice and quickens his steps. 

‘Well, I can get another one!’ what the hell was that?

Damn it!

*Protectiveness*

‘You know what this means?’ Annie’s blue eyes were burning with familiar fire when she was onto something. He liked that quality about her, but only if didn’t affect with his own life! 

‘Yes, you are making me do work for my fake conspiracy class!’ and the worst he could never say “no” to her! Why it was so hard to refuse to her?

‘Exactly, there's a conspiracy here. A dark, vast conspiracy that may just go all the way to the top!’

‘This is Greendale, Annie,’ it was ridiculous how excited she got. ‘If there's a conspiracy, it goes all the way to slightly below the middle.’

‘Wait a minute. Something's wrong. My car won't start,’ his phone rang and he got distracted from Annie’s ridiculous attempt to get him involved. 

‘Hold on one second. Hello?’

‘Tell your little friend to stop snooping around night school. Otherwise, things might get explosive,’ said a robotic voice and Jeff’s heart clenched with fear. He turned around and his prime thought was to protect her. It was Greendale, crazier things happened here, what if some lunatic will actually hurt Annie? No way he can let this happen. So he ran and then tackled Annie down to shield her with his body from whatever might happen. Of course, nothing really happened, just some tiny spark of the car. He noticed that he was still on top of her, Annie’s hands on his shoulders and she is breathing heavily, before his mind went to another dimension, he got up quickly helping Annie to get on her feet.

She was OK and that’s what was important, but just in case he had to check what was all this business about, underwhelming or not, they tried to mess with Annie and he doesn’t like it. 

Damn it!

*Daydreaming*

He was pretty sure that he was basically drooling at this point, but he didn’t care. His mind was so relaxed and content with the fact that things were turning around. He and Britta were just friends now and it was a tremendous relief for both of them. Pierce was gone from their lives. He kind of got used to Greendale and he loved his friends, life was pretty good, especially now that he was lost in a daydream where Annie was dancing and twirling right into his arms.

‘Jeff, Jeff!’ he heard Annie’s voice. But for some reason it wasn’t her calling his name in the night, or her being all excited for amazing date he organized for them. All right, Jeff could finally admit he thought about her sexually now, it wasn’t that big of a deal anymore. But making sappy musicals about a girl he is interested in? That was a first one!

Damn it!

*Fear*

He really needed Annie’s help with this toast thing, marriage was so overrated! And now he had to pretend he believed in it, which was harder than he expected. Good thing that Annie actually believed in that sort of thing, she was like that, full of hope and light and faith in a better tomorrow, he really wanted to protect that for her, even though he didn’t believe it himself. 

‘You know what I think would make the perfect toast? You, as Shirley's friend  
and a good guy, just saying what's really in your heart. There's something real  
in there,’ she touched his chest lightly and his heart jumped to his throat. Why does this keep happening to him when she is around? ‘Maybe that's what scares you.’

He looked down to the spot Annie’s hand was a second ago and images were dancing in his head: poker hand, Annie, a dog, alcohol, a car, a house, Annie, the same car, a red head, Annie, a cell phone, the same dog, Annie's boobs and alcohol again.

All right, that was a terrifying amount of Annie in his thoughts or heart as she put it, he needs alcohol, lots of alcohol, feelings were terrifying and Annie was slowly crawling in his soul, he can’t let this happen!

Damn it!

*Acceptance*

After all this time Jeff long since accepted that Annie held a special place in his life, he didn’t know exactly what it was, but whatever it was, it now forced him to go to the bar and order her the ridiculous drink she asked for.

‘Can I get a single malt scotch neat…and,’ he exhales deeply knowing the reaction he was about to get, ‘…an appletini.’

The bartended smirks knowingly but doesn’t mock him or anything, he glances at the couch, where Annie was waiting for Jeff to come back, and smiles.

‘Is that your wife over there?’ he asks without any hint of condescension or judgement. Jeff certainly did not expect that. At Greendale, whenever the subject of them being a couple was brought up, everybody was really negative about it. Maybe this age difference thing was mostly in Jeff’s head? Here, when Annie made a whole scene about him being her husband, nobody questioned it, on the contrary, everybody seemed to think they were a very cute couple. ‘She is very beautiful,’ adds the bartender breaking Jeff’s thoughts.

‘No, no, she…’ he wanted to deny it, he wanted to tell that he wasn’t the marrying kind it, but he glanced at Annie once again, who was smiling back at him all glowing and happy and he couldn’t help but wonder, what would it be like if they actually were married. ‘Yeah, she is.’

Being married to Annie Edison? Not the worst case scenario. 

Damn it!

*Love*

‘Milady?’

‘Milord!’

The room is now working, the machine is beeping and Jeff’s heart and head was about to explode. He knew, he knew it for a long time, but now this place, this madman just had to throw it in his face. He was in love with Annie and no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t escape it. 

So what? What is he supposed to do with it now? How can he tell her? He is not good enough for her, he never was, but now that he was stuck in Greendale, after his stunt with Britta, how can somebody like him even consider being with someone like Annie? Even if he lived a million lifetimes, he will not be deserving of her. 

Damn it…

*Pining*

He was drinking more and more everyday, distancing him from his friends and especially from her. Annie can’t know how he feels, she has to leave this place and forget him. He won’t let her repeat his mistakes and being stuck here when she is clearly destined for so much more. He will be fine, eventually, one day when this pain in his chest will stop poisoning him every single minute. He didn’t know how, but he will handle it, maybe another drink will help. 

But then, every once in awhile she looks at him with her huge blue eyes and smiles gently and the only thing he can think of is kissing her until they are both breathless and never let her go.

Damn it…

*Hope*

He was taking Abed and Annie to the airport, because it was time for all of them to move on to a new chapter in their lives. Jeff was feeling both anxious and hopeful. He told Annie how he felt and even though he expected her to run away or turn him down, she didn’t, she gave him hope that whatever it was  
between them, it wasn’t over. She asked him to kiss her and he did, she promised that the variables could still include them and he trusted her words and now when he was kissing her goodbye, he was almost certain it wasn’t forever, it didn’t feel like the end. It was light and hopeful and damn it he wanted it to be continued and maybe, if he follows her or she comes back to him, they can make it work. Yes, they can make it work.


	16. Parks and Recs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set sometime after 5x13 Basic Sandwich. Shirley snaps at Britta for making one bad decision after another while putting Jeff down all the time. Not really J/A, just small hints.
> 
> Might be interpreted as Britta bashing, but really, it’s more of my frustration on how the writers totally ruined a potentially great character.

‘Can you believe this jerk?’ yelled Britta at her phone while walking through park waiting for the rest of the group to join them. They saved Greendale a few days ago and dean suggested that they celebrate and have a picnic. Unfortunately, not everybody could join them. Hickey was busy with his drawings and Annie left with some of her girlfriends for a hiking trip. Britta was a little surprised by Annie’s decision, she was usually the one who brought the group to do things together. Whatever, she was probably seeing some guy and didn’t want to say anything. But a minute ago she received a text from Jeff, apparently, he changed his mind too and decided to quit on them last minute. An unpleasant thought crossed Britta’s mind, what if Jeff didn’t want to come because Annie wasn’t here? They were weird like that sometimes, not that she cared.

‘What happened?’ asked Shirley who came first out of the group. 

‘Jeff is such an ass! He just texted me saying he can’t make it. Man, the guy has no sense of responsibility and that is after me and him almost got married!’ she snorted, that was one crazy thing. Thank God they came to their senses and the whole thing was resolved in a few hours. Her being married to Jeff? Ewhhhh.

‘Is this some kind of a joke to you?’ asked Shirley clearly unimpressed.

‘What?’

‘The stunt that the two of you pulled off? No offense Britta, but you are not a teenager anymore and things like marriage is not something you kid around.’

‘Oh, come on! It was just a stupid little thing, like what people do when they get drunk and get married in Vegas! It’s not a big deal.’

‘Well, maybe it should be a bigger deal for you at this point?’ Shirley’s voice was now visibly hostile and Britta couldn’t understand where this was coming from. 

‘I don’t get it are you mad at me or something? Why do you care so much? So we did a stupid thing, Jeff was scared, I was scared, but things worked out!’

‘That’s the thing, Britta, you are making one bad decision with your life after another. First you sleep with Jeff and it turns out to be a disaster so you sneak behind our backs, your string of very questionable boyfriends such as Blade, your fights for something that makes no sense, you being high almost constantly and now this failed attempt at marriage what is wrong with you, girl?’

‘Hey, lay off me! Why don’t you throw this engagement thing at Jeff’s face? He was there too.’

‘That’s the point, you are always criticizing Jeffrey for what a cold-blooded jerk he is, but in reality, you are exactly the same! Even worse sometimes!’

‘You take it back!’

‘Like hell I will!’ snapped Shirley. ‘You can do with your life what you want but your decisions start to affect other people!’

‘What the hell that is supposed to mean?’ asks Britta not sure what Shirley was trying to say here, she was certainly didn’t expect her to be that upfront with her about recent events. OK, maybe Britta did go off track a little, but it wasn’t that bad, was it? ‘And for the record, my mistakes are my own and they gave all necessary lessons I needed! And if you haven’t noticed, I am doing fine!’

‘Oh, I am sorry, so the call from the last night where you were crying about being evicted was a hoax?’ Shirley rolled her eyes and Britta felt her cheeks burning. ‘You are almost thirty-five and you still behave like a child! At least Jeffrey is trying to get his life together, he doesn’t do a good job, but that’s another point.’

‘You know what? I am a grown woman! I can do what I want! If I want to live on the streets, I will! If I want to marry some junkie, I will! And you can’t tell me what do! You are not my mother!’

‘If I were your mother, I would have slapped you into the next week! Listen, Britta, I am worried that you are throwing your life away!’

‘I can throw my life away! Because it’s MY life!’ 

‘You know what? You are right, this was the first and the last time I bring this up, it’s a lost cause.’

Britta glanced at Shirley feeling a burning sensation of offence but she couldn’t really contradict her, because, as harsh as it was Shirley was on point in many things, except for one. She was better than Jeff, she had to be.


	17. Fantasies 101

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set a few weeks after 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television. Jeff is visiting Annie in DC, after having sex they have an intimate discussion. Smutty but not explicit. References to earlier seasons.

It was a very late Friday night or maybe even Saturday morning when Jeff and Annie finally let go of each other. Annie was panting heavily still unable to find focus. After the study room conversation and a long-distance relationship over texts and video-calls, Jeff finally managed to come to DC and to resolve the sexual tension that was building up for six years. To be honest, Annie didn’t expect their first time to be perfect like in the movies or in the romance novels she loved to read so much, she didn’t have that much of experience but she had some and she learned awhile ago that first time is usually a little awkward and there is definitely a chance not to reach the point, so to speak, especially for a girl. But reality with Jeff was something else entirely, she didn’t know what it was, the fact that they knew each other so well, or their sync thing that has always been a mystery to everybody, but their first time was just amazing. 

From the moment they started making out in her tiny sublet apartment in DC, when it was obvious where this was going, to the moment when he was already inside of her, so strong and gentle and hers, she finally realized what people meant when they say “to see the stars.” She never had such a strong reaction in her life, by the end of the process she was so out of control that all her normal senses disappeared concentrating in one spot only. She hoped that it was just as great for Jeff as it was for her and judging by the fact that she could still hear his heart beating like crazy and an absolutely shocked expression on his face, he shared her experience. Annie was hoping they were not very loud, because her apartment had really thin walls, but honestly, she wouldn’t know. The moment Jeff’s fingers reached her panties, she can barely remember anything except how amazing his body felt. 

‘Oh, my God…’ whispered Jeff, he managed to recover a little quicker. Well, he was always better with words. ‘That was…’

‘I know!’ Annie finally managed to form words.

‘I can’t believe we waited for six years for…,’ he lifted himself on the elbow and kissed Annie deeply, she moaned and felt that she was getting turned on again. 

‘We really need to take a break,’ she said laughing nervously. 

‘What? Why?’ his eyes were already in panic mode, like he was afraid she regretted it. 

‘Because if we do that again I think I am going to explode, just give me a few minutes,’ she smiled and pecked him on the lips, seeing his confusion. ‘I am a little too sensitive now, you know…’

‘Ah! Yeah, sure, sorry, I got a little carried away,’ he grinned and had the most annoying self-satisfying grin she ever saw on him and she knew him for six years and saw him both at his best and worst. Annie rolled her eyes at him, he noticed it of course and his grin became even more insufferable.

‘Would you stop that?’

‘Stop what?’ 

‘Looking so smug?’

‘Well, Annie, if you didn’t know it’s kind of flattering for a man when a woman is clearly very satisfied, it really helps with the ego boost,’ she tried to smack his chest but he caught her hand in his and wouldn’t let go.

‘You don’t need an ego boost, you already have enough of it, Jeff.’

‘Maybe,’ he was now kissing her fingers, she couldn’t help but smile a little, he looked gorgeous, all naked in the shadows of the room and his sole focus was on her. ‘But I fantasized about it for long six years and now that I have a real thing, I will enjoy every second of it.’

‘You fantasized about it?’ she raised an eyebrow and Jeff stopped kissing her palm.

‘Of course,’ he looked at her as if she said the most ridiculous thing on the planet. ‘Even long before I knew I loved you, it shouldn’t be that surprising.’

‘I guess not,’ she nodded and decided to play a little game. ‘So…did you, you know, touch yourself when you thought about me?’

Jeff’s eyes immediately went dark and his hand was now slowly caressing her hip. 

‘Yes,’ he said quietly. ‘Does it bother you?’

‘Nope,’ she giggled and touched his cheek. ‘I know I did when I fantasized about you.’

Jeff’s eyes went even darker if that was possible, he was clearly surprised but it was one of those moments that made him all giddy and very much involved, she knew he wouldn’t let go of the subject, to be honest she didn’t want to, the whole conversation was doing it for her. 

‘Really?’ he smirked smugly and she really wanted to smack him or kiss him or both. 

‘Why do you sound so surprised? It’s okay for you fantasize about me and not okay for me to fantasize about you?’

‘No, of course not, I was just…I suppose I am flattered and a little turned on by the idea,’ his hand was now on her inner thigh but Annie was already a little impatient, so she decided to press the subject, there was something in stalling the inevitable that made it even more fun. 

‘Just a little?’ she teased him and Jeff chuckled. 

‘OK, maybe a little more than a little,’ he kissed her and she run her fingers through his hair. ‘So, tell me, when did it start? When was the first time you thought about me?’

‘Remember that pool thing?’ she asked closing her eyes, Jeff was already kissing her neck and she heard him moan a little when she rocked her hips against him. ‘You were so confident and competitive and…’

‘Very naked,’ he finished her sentence grinning against her skin. ‘I guess I had two victories that day.’

‘What about you?’ she asked rolling him on the back and sitting on the top of him. 

‘So many times, you have no idea.’

‘I got that part, but when was the first time?’ she was kissing his jaw and now changed her attention to his earlobe, his breathing quickened, but she wouldn’t let him go further until he answered her question. 

‘The debate thing,’ he breathed out clutching her hips. ‘After the preparation…and that kiss, I went home and I couldn’t get out the images of you and me touching you and…’

She kissed him on the mouth and he captured her lips hungrily. 

‘Maybe you should show me what you fantasized about that day,’ she whispered into his year.

Instead of answering he picked her up a little and they were clinging together to each other, they didn’t talk anymore, after all their reality was now much better than any fantasy.


	18. Tick-Tock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set a few weeks after 6x13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television. Annie was in DC and got into an accident. WARNING! Very Darkfic!

Tick-tock, was the only thing that Jeff could hear right now. An old clock on the wall of the hospital has been ticking for the last sixteen hours. Jeff had shadows under his eyes and he felt like he can barely breathe. Britta was right next to him clutching her hands nervously, once or twice she offered to get them some coffee, but Jeff could only manage to shake his head, he couldn’t say a word ever since he asked Britta to come with him to DC when Annie’s partner called him in the middle of the night, since Jeff was her emergency contact, telling that they were visiting a precinct and there was an armored attack, many people were killed on the spot, many were injured, including Annie. He remembered how his head was spinning, how fear was clutching his heart, he knew he had to get to DC as soon as possible, but Jeff knew he couldn’t do it alone, so he called Britta who agreed to come with him immediately, she loved Annie too. 

Jeff and Annie were still not together officially, but they were getting there, Jeff was even going to visit her and Annie was looking in for jobs at Denver, Jeff was hoping that soon, when she would be done with her internship, she will be back and they will be together forever. But that late night call changed everything, now he was just praying that she lived and he didn’t care if she would be with him or not, as long as he knew that she was breathing that her strong, kind heart was beating somewhere, he would be all right. 

When they arrived at the hospital, Annie was already in the surgery and they wouldn’t let them see her, so while the doctors were fighting for her life, Jeff was fighting for his sanity that was slowly slipping away. Once in awhile Britta would say something or call somebody to tell there were no progress so far, Troy, Abed and Shirley were waiting for the news too. Jeff wanted to call Annie’s family but whenever he tried to open his mouth to say something he would just stand there, so Britta was the one who dialed Anthony in the morning, he was supposed to get here in a few hours.   
When the surgeon finally emerged Jeff’s heart was beating dully, the doctor called Annie’s name and both he and Britta looked at him hopefully, but the moment the doctor looked at him he knew, it was over.

‘I am sorry to tell you, but unfortunately, there is nothing we could do. The only reason why she even lasted so long was because she was young and healthy,’ the surgeon shook Jeff’s shoulder while Britta was already sobbing next to him. ‘I am very sorry for your loss. The nurse will tell you what papers to sign so you can take her body after autopsy for the burial.’

This can’t be happening. Annie couldn’t…die, the whole notion was absurd! This has to be a terrible mistake or one of those heart-wrenching dreams after which you wake up all sweaty and shaking. He was waiting, any second now he will wake up and call Annie and hear her sweet voice telling him how much she loves DC and how she missed him and that she planned a whole tour for them around Washington. But minutes would go on and he still wouldn’t wake up, the ugly clock was still ticking and Britta was now calling his name trying to get him to call Annie’s family, to sign papers and some other unnecessary things. Why does it even matter now? Why would anything matter?

He felt like his legs gave away and he was slowly going down the wall, he heard Britta calling for the nurse and felt an unpleasant smell of drugs that somebody was using on him.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

They buried her in Greendale, it was her home, the place she was born and grew up, the place where they all met her. A lot of people showed for the funeral, Annie’s colleges from DC, her family, her friends from the school and of course Greendale with the former study group in charge. On the day of the funeral, when Jeff looked at himself in the mirror, he absentmindedly noticed that a strand of his hair was now pure white, not that he cared, these last few days aged him ten years and he finally looked his age. To be honest, he was surprised he didn’t lose it right there in the hospital, maybe if Britta wasn’t there calling out for him, he would have. 

The ceremony was in one of the funeral homes, Jeff was in the front row but he couldn’t bring himself to look at Annie, or rather what was left of her, his focus was on her favorite purple flowers that surrounded the wooden casket. The picture next to it, where Annie was so young and shining was killing him slowly, he glanced at it once and the tears was burning his eyes immediately, he felt Shirley’s hand clutching around his and all he could do is squeeze back, showing that for whatever reason, he was still breathing. After the ceremony was over, they came to the cemetery, where Jeff had last chance to look at Annie’s corpse before the funeral services would close the casket and put her into the ground forever. He approached the wooden box half-mad with grief and felt Abed’s hand supporting him, he looked at his friend who was crying silent tears and they both stared at the woman who held a special place in their lives. She was still beautiful, but now she looked more like a doll, polished to perfection, her eyes were closed and there was not a trace of her usual grin, she was wearing a simple blue dress that would have complimented her eyes. Jeff touched her hand for a second and put it away immediately, this cold, unmoving thing wasn’t his Annie, his Annie was gone, leaving him all alone. He didn’t bother to hide his tears, funerals, after all existed for that exact reason. 

They were now at her mom’s house, first Jeff didn’t want to go, he wanted to get to his apartment and drink until he doesn’t remember. But Troy, Shirley and Britta insisted that Annie would have wanted him to be there, so he went. He and Abed were sitting in silence drinking scotch and glancing at each other, sometimes he would hear a whimper or somebody would cry, but Jeff didn’t have any tears left in him, so he would just drink and watch the fire. 

‘Did he say anything?’ asked Shirley Britta who was now shaking a little, both from cold and events that disrupted all their lives. 

‘No,’ she shook her head gently watching Abed and Jeff sitting in the corner. She, Shirley and Troy were next to the bar feeling helplessness. They knew that Abed would be affected by the tragedy the most out of them due to his unique view on the world. But even his reaction wouldn’t compare to how Jeff was taking it. ‘Ever since he told me about the shooting, I couldn’t make him talk. I don’t know what else to do.’

‘Time, I guess,’ said Troy shrugging, taking a sip of his drink. 

‘I don’t know how much time would pass before Jeffrey gets back to normal,’ said Shirley nervously. 

‘Yeah, maybe never,’ nodded Britta. ‘He and Annie…They were…’

‘Yeah,’ agreed Troy and Shirley at the same time. 

‘But he has to live on, doesn’t he?’ asked Troy carefully. 

‘For now, we just need to make sure he gets through it and maybe, with time,’ Britta took another drink and gulped it in in one shot.

‘Maybe I should invite him to stay with me and Abed for awhile,’ suggested Troy. 

‘Are you sure you will be able to handle it?’ asked Shirley. ‘Abed will also need a lot of help.’

‘Britta, maybe you can come too, our place is huge, so it doesn’t really matter.’

‘Yeah, it’s a good idea,’ Britta glanced at Jeff again and knew that no matter how good the idea was it won’t work. ‘But I don’t think he’ll go, not right away anyway.’

‘You think he will want to stay closer to her?’ asked Shirley.

‘Yeah, something like that.’

‘I still can’t believe that our little pumpkin…’ Shirley broke into tears.

They didn’t notice how Abed approached their little group. 

‘Where is Jeff?’ asked Troy breaking away from Shirley. 

‘He went home, said he needed to be alone,’ said Abed quietly. 

‘You actually talked to him?’ asked Britta hopefully. 

‘No, but he nodded at me, I knew what he meant.’ 

‘Maybe one of us should follow him to check if he is all right?’ asked Troy. 

‘Yeah, I will go, don’t worry,’ Britta put down her glass and left the house immediately. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jeff was sitting in the dark looking into nothingness, he was on his second bottle of scotch but still didn’t feel drunk or at least lightheaded. Nothing made sense anymore, all this was a fucking nightmare, Annie is dead, his Annie, the love of his life, the kindest, brightest person he ever known, was now dead and buried in the ground and he will never see her again, never talk to her, never feel the warmth of her body. It shouldn’t be like this, he was sixteen years older! He was supposed to die first and if things would have worked out between them, she was supposed to be the one who mourn him, he should have died before her surrounded by their children and grandchildren, not this! 

This was fucking unfair! He took the bottle and smashed it against the wall, then he took a lamp, then a remote or anything his hands could reach. After he trashed his apartment, Jeff set on the floor and wept and groaned like a wounded animal, he wanted to scream, to punch something to do anything really to stop this pain for just one second, he didn’t even notice that someone entered the room quietly, apparently, he didn’t close the door and he didn’t care if someone is here to kill him, he wouldn’t mind, at least he would stop hurting and maybe if there is something there on the other side, he would see Annie again. He felt a cool hand on his shoulder and saw Britta’s scared, pale face. She didn’t say anything just cried silent tears, she joined him on the floor and hugged him and they stayed like this for hours, mourning their friend.

‘I don’t think I can do this,’ said Jeff in a low voice. It was his first words in days and it sounded as if he had a severe cold. Britta glanced at him and pressed her hands on the hips, a minute ago she was busy with cleaning up the mess he made.

‘You have to,’ she said firmly. Putting down the trash bag. ‘You mourn, you grief and you move on.’

‘I can’t, Britta, I can’t forget…’

‘I never said forget, you will never forget! We will never forget. But you move on, eventually. Not today, not tomorrow, but someday.’

‘How?’ he asked her weakly.

‘You think about all the time you had together, how you loved her and she loved you and you need to stick to the fact, that we both know is true, Annie would want you to live on, to be happy again someday. If you don’t even try she would never forgive you.’  
‘She is dead,’ he said his voice breaking again. ‘She doesn’t care.’

‘But you are not and your friends are not. And it doesn’t matter if you believe in afterlife, you know I don’t, but the memories we have about her, the Annie we all knew and loved, she wouldn’t let you wither and follow her, would she?’

‘She wouldn’t,’ Jeff agrees reluctantly. ‘Thank you, for being there and here.’

‘Anytime, Jeff.’


End file.
